And Were All Dead Now
by NekoJinDriger
Summary: Zoe is in love but know one knows, she has alot of troubles and alot goes wrong in her life and Rei seems to be slipping through her fingers, she is loosing everything she loves, and what are her dreams about? read and enjoy please people R&R xxxx Dallas
1. Dream?

A Young Girl stared impassively out the car door window. The cemetery was darker than usual; quieter than usual, and there were no sounds to break this pressing silence. She watched the tombstones pass by in blurs of grey and white; they seemed almost luminous as they stood against the darkness. Tiredly--almost in a bored fashion--She rolled Her eyes over to look at the driver of the car. His eyes were focused intently on the dirt road that could be seen thanks to the car's headlights. She studied the intense expression etched on his pale face for a moment, before She once again peered out the window. Her eyes moved upward to the sky, where She saw nothing but inky blackness. The black color of the nighttime sky seemed to blend in with the darkness on the ground, making Her feel as though she were stuck in one giant void, where only the headlights penetrated the emptiness.

She spent only mere minutes thinking of this concept. The car came to a sudden stop and the void you had once seen seemed to vanish.

Outside the window she could see a tombstone erected a couple of feet away, in front of a tree with sagging branches. It was massive and tall and took the form of a graceful angel; it looked so real that she could've easily mistaken it for a petrified person. Almost instinctively, she opened the car door and stepped out from its warmth, into the biting coldness. her feet carried her to the tombstone without her truly realizing it, and she leaned with her back against it. she looked down at her feet and saw three shriveled roses at the base of the grave. They looked as though they had died long ago. With an inaudible sigh, she looked back up.

Her eyes met with a pair of Golden ones. _His_ Golden ones.

"Would you finally explain to me why on Earth you dragged me out here at this time of the night?" She asked, stifling a yawn.

He sighed and adverted his gaze to the dead roses on the grave. He kicked them around slightly for a moment, before finally meeting her eyes once again. His face held a look of absolute sorrow.

"Won't you die tonight for love?" he breathed.

"Excuse me...?"

She searched his eyes for some kind of translation to the words that had left his mouth. But seeing as how they had become blank and empty, she found nothing. He let out what sounded like a whimper of despair and regret, before he reached a shaky hand into his coat pocket. What he drew out of it made her knees buckle and sent terror coursing through her veins.

"Rei," She whispered, Her tone pleading and Her voice trembling almost to the point of making Her words incoherent, "oh God, please..._don't_."

_BANG_.

The gunshot ripped through the silence and, as if tearing open an invisible barrier, all sound returned. The bullet wound in Her chest immediately started oozing out blood and Her skin went frigid; She stood motionless, Her features twisted into a look of sheer agony and Her hand slowly raising to cover the wound. It was stained scarlet as Her blood continued to pour out. And then, all too quickly, she collapsed forward into Rei's shaking arms. She felt the icy barrel of his gun against her stomach as she let out a soft sob. The restored sounds of the outside world met her ears; she heard the rustling of leaves on the trees as the wind blew through them...the chirping of crickets...the distant rumble of cars as they sped by on the road outside the cemetery...

And then Rei let out another whimper. He slowly stepped back and, without him supporting her, she fell forward. With what little strength she had left, she rolled from her stomach, onto her back. Rei looked down at her, his eyes still as blank and empty as they had been moments before. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came forth; she ended up mouthing "why" to him. He said nothing; he only stared at her with dead eyes that clashed with the evident sadness on his face.

As he towered above Her fallen body, all the surroundings started to flicker and fade. The pain seemed to fade off, too, but in its absence She started to grow colder than ever. Soon, everything but Rei had gone perfectly black...everything looked like the void She'd seen while driving through the cemetery earlier. And only Rei stood in absolute visibility.  
But even as she realized this, his image started to disappear. She let out a hoarse cry. She didn't understand...She didn't know what was happening...

"I love you, Zoe."

Those were the final words Zoe heard before Rei was nothing more than a contribution to the void she lay dying in. Zoe lifted her hand weakly, confused, and tried to grab something--anything--out of the blackness. But she found nothing.

And then, suddenly...everything was gone.

Zoes eyes snapped wide open and cold sweat immediately filled them. She sat up quickly, rubbing her now stinging eyes and breathing hard. Once her eyes were not longer burning, she peered around her dark bedroom and tried to slow her breathing down. Zoes nightmare played out like a horrible movie before her eyes; everything had felt so very real...the pain, the sorrow, the fear...

Zoe felt around her chest quickly, and were overly relieved to find no gunshot wound. Then, with a trembling hand, she brushed some of her long black hair (which was soaked in sweat, just like the rest of your body) out of her face and hastily tried to shake the images out of her head. Zoe sank her fingers into her bed sheets and closed her eyes tight, forcing the nightmare out of her mind.

"Jesus, Zoe! Get a hold of yourself! It was nothing but a dream; nothing but subconscious images," She told herself forcefully.

And the words seemed to work--at least a little bit.

Zoe stopped trembling and were able to calm yourself down enough to look over at her alarm clock. _3:44am_ flashed in glowing red numbers on its black screen. She bit her bottom lip slightly and threw her legs over the side of the bed. It might have been very early in the morning, but there was no way she were going to allow herself to fall back asleep after that nightmare. So, to fully calm her rigid nerves, she decided to step outside for some fresh air. Zoe crept silently down the stairs, trying with all her might not to wake her sleeping mother or stepfather. She was successful and slipped out the front door without disturbing their slumber.

Zoe stepped out onto the front porch, letting the cool, pure air envelope her. She smiled to herself; the sensation of the undefiled air sweeping into her lungs gave her a feeling of being purged. Zoes eyes wandered dazedly up to the sky. It was breathtaking in all its undefeatable glory; stares dotted the bluish-blackness and paled in comparison to the white, large, cratered orb that ruled over them all. The moon certainly dominated the sky, perched high up like a great king upon his throne. She was getting so wrapped up in the beauty of it all...she wished she could just stare upon the surroundings for all eternity...

And then Zoe was knocked back into reality. Literally.

Something hard came in contact with the side of your head. Shocked, she let out a cry of pain and clutched the area where she'd been hit. Withdrawing her hand from the spot, Zoe saw a bit of crimson blood on her palm. Zoe looked around frantically and, seeing nothing but an empty street ahead and the hedges lining her front lawn, tried to find out what had hit her. With one glance downward, Zoe figured it out.

A rock. A jagged, large rock.

"What the hell?" she murmured, slowly bending down to pick the object up.

And as she straightened back up, she heard something...laughter. her eyes immediately darted over to a hedge at the side of the front lawn.   
she were just in time to see someone ducking down behind it. The shock and confusion on her face was wiped off in an instant, and instead was replaced by anger.

"Rei? You _ass_! What the hell are you doing here?!" Zoe cried. "And why did you throw a rock at me?"

Rei's head popped up above the hedge. After a few seconds, he stood. In the moonlight Zoe could see his face, which held a wide grin.

"I was just walking by and I noticed you out here. I had to get your attention somehow," he explained.

"I believe a simple 'Hey Zoe!' would've sufficed," She sighed, rubbing your head.

"Probably...but I wanted to get your attention in _style_."

"Oh, so that's _style_, is it?" Zoe questioned, rolling the rock around in the palm of her hand.

Zoe took a glance at it, then at Rei, and then chucked the rock as hard as she could at him.

And it hit him. Right on the forehead...but a lot harder than it had hit her. Rei stumbled out from behind the hedge, clutching his forehead and basically screaming a flurry of swears.

"WHAT THE HELL, ZOE?!"

"Oh please. Spare me your little tantrum! It didn't hit you _that_ hard," Zoe sighed, stepping down from the porch and walking over to Rei. She forced his hand off of his forehead, and then suddenly reeled back. "Holy...whoa. I'm _so sorry_!"

There was a gash on his forehead where the rock had hit, which was currently bleeding. Rei looked at her inquisitively for a moment, then looked at the hand that had been covering the gash and let out a scream when he saw the blood on it.

"YOU JUST HAD TO THROW IT BACK!" he yelled.

You were sure your parents were going to wake up if Rei kept screaming. You tried to calm him down.

"It's really not that bad! Just a scratch--"

"JUST A SCRATCH? _JUST A SCRATCH_? PLEASE!"

"You're overreacting about this, Rei!" Zoe said, though he kept on screaming out things. "Rei...Rei...REI! CALM DOWN!"

And though her furious scream finally made Rei stop freaking out, it also woke someone up.

"WHAT IS WITH ALL THE SCREAMING?!" Zoe heard her stepfather, Chris, shout from somewhere behind her.

Zoe hung her head low and turned around. There he stood on the front porch, bleary-eyed and still in his pajamas.

"You do realize you're also screaming, right?"

"I DON'T CARE! IT'S ONLY 4 IN THE MORNING, ZOE! STOP ARGUING, SAY GOODBYE TO REI, AND GET YOUR ASS BACK IN BED!"

Zoe sighed and turned around to face Rei. Beyond him, she saw the houses across the street. And slowly, one by one, their lights were flickering on inside.

"Great...we woke up the neighborhood," she sighed. "I'm really sorry about your head. But, uh, I better go. He," Zoe gestured back to Chris, "just woke up, so he's probably real grumpy. I'll talk to you at school tomorrow, where you can proceed and yell at me if you wish."

Rei glanced around Zoe, at Chris, and then nodded his head. And he must've been pretty angry at her, because he took off down the sidewalk without saying goodbye.

"Come on, Zoe!" Chris groaned.

"I'm coming!"

Zoe turned around and followed Chris back into the house. He urged her back to bed once more and she went obediently.

The second Zoe had crawled back under her covers, sleep washed over her, even though she didn't want it to. And then, perhaps no more than 10 minutes later, Zoe woke up with a start as her nightmare ended once again. She had completely forgotten about it while outside, but now there was no possible way for her to throw its images out of her mind. Every time her eyes would shut, images of Rei standing over her dying self would appear.

And so there was no way for her to go back to sleep.

And so, until her mother came upstairs to get her up for school, Zoe sat in her bed, wide awake, and tried to forget it all.


	2. FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

"Zoe, no offence...but you look like shit." Tyson commented as Zoe joined her five friends in front of the school building.

"Shut up," She mumbled tiredly. "I got no sleep at all last night. You'd look like shit, too, if you sat up all night."

"You know, he already looks like shit to me." Kai Said, receiving a hard punch on the shoulder from Tyson, Kai shot him glare as if to say' i will get you back later and it will kill you!' and Tyson gilped and hid behind Max.

"Fuck you." Tyson said From behind Max.

"No thanks, I have a girlfriend." Kai said cooly.

"Since when do you have a girlfriend?" Max asked curiously.

"Since he bought a Barbie doll." Rei explained proudly.

"God, you're pathetic..." Zoe managed to say, sleepiness evident in her voice.

"Try not to fall asleep in Chemistry again. You remember what happened last time." Kenny warned.

Zoe smiled weakly, knowing what Kenny was talking about. Last semester, Zoe had fallen asleep in her Chemistry class. Mr. Vander, the teacher, had whacked her on the head with a ruler to get her to wake up. By doing this, not only did he break the ruler, but she jumped up in shock, stumbled backwards, and knocked a whole shelf of chemicals to the ground. The whole incident was talked about for weeks and weeks, finally being forgotten when another student did something retarded. Though, she had never fallen asleep in Mr. Vander's class again afterwards.

"I'll try to stay awake. But it's just so damn hard to do that in his class." Zoe sighed.

Zoe and the guys talked for a while more, until the bell rang. She unwillingly trudged into the school, along with all of the other students. She was forced to temporarily seperate from her friends to go down the hallway that led to her locker. Zoe pushed past the groups of people until she reached her locker. she quickly opened it, grabbing the things she'd need for the next couple of classes. Zoe shut her locker and turned around, nearly running into the four girls who were standing behind Her. Zoe sighed deeply, recognzing the four people as her worst enemies.

"I see your suspension has ended, freak," the head of the group said in a snobby tone.

"I could always get suspended again for beating the shit out of you, Mariah," you started, speaking calmly. "But I'm not going to waste my time on a whore as stupid as you."

As soon as the words had escaped Zoes mouth, she felt a sharp pain on your cheek. Zoe gently raised her hand and touched the area, which still stung a bit.

"Did you...just...slap me?" Zoe asked, sounding shocked.

Mariah only grinned in reply. But, she didn't see her grin for long. Zoe balled her hand into a fist, reared it back, and hit her as hard as she possibly could in the jaw. The impact of the blow sent her stumbling back, before she fell down to the ground. Then, all Hell broke loose. Her friends all jumped Zoe at once. She fought back the best she could, though it was hard to do so. Before long, a huge group of students had formed a circle around all of them, chanting "fight" over and over again.

"ZOE! Stop!"

Zoe felt someone grab her and pull her away from the four girls she had been fighting with. Zoe struggled to get out of this person's grip, but they were holding onto her too tightly.

"Just calm down," the person whispered into her ear.

Zoe recognized the voice and stopped struggling. She sighed softly.

"I'm sorry, Rei," Zoe mumbled softly, her whole body aching.

The four girls Zoe had been fighting with had nearly overpowered her. Each had gotten plenty of good hits in on Zoe.

"It's alright, don't worry." Rei said. "You're a mess. I think we should get you to the nurse."

"No. I'm fine." Zoe said, though it was ruder than she had intended it to be.

"Stop being stubborn, damnit." Rei sighed.

"What's going on out here?" a loud voice roared over the excited chatter of students, who all still surrounded Zoe.

Everyone fell silent as the principal pushed past the group of people. He walked over to where Zoe stood, seeing how bloodied-up she was. Then, he gazed over at the other four, who were helping the first girl Zoe had knocked down up. They were all pretty bloodied-up, but not as bad as Zoe. The principal seemed to tremble with rage. His cold stare moved back to Zoe and he said angrily, "You two go to my office right now. I want to speak with you first."

"But Rei didn't do anything-" Zoe began, but was cut off.

"No, I did. Let's go." Rei said, pulling Zoe along as he started walking down the hallway.

Zoe stared at him with confusion in her eyes.

"What are you doing? You weren't in that fight at all. You're going to get yourself into trouble for no reason!"

Rei looked at Her with a weak smile, "I know. You can thank me later."

Zoe were completely silent as Rei and her entered the office. The office secretary looked at Zoe, seeming a bit shocked.

"Oh, dear! We need to get you to the nurse!" she nearly shouted.

"No, no. I'm fine. The principal told us to go to his office, anyways." Zoe said quickly.

The secretary looked a bit reluctant, but allowed both of them to go into the principal's office. Zoe and Rei sat in the two seats in front of his desk in silence for a long time, until the principal finally came storming into the room. He walked over to his desk and stood behind it, gazing impassively at the two of them for a moment. Then, he started yelling. He yelled about how angry he was and about how they were a disgrace to the school. Zoe could tell that Rei wasn't really use to being yelled at like this, but Zoe had been to the principal's office so many times that all the yelling didn't affect her.

"I'm not shocked by your actions, Miss Jin. You're in this office at least once a month! It has become a routine. I actually expect to see you here every month, and when I don't, I consider it a miracle! If I could kick you out of this school, I'd do it in a heartbeat. It's too bad that I can't," he began his lecture, which She had heard many times before. "Now, before I decide what to do with the both of you, let me hear your side of the story."

Zoe sighed and started speaking, her voice dull, "Mariah and her group of snobs came up to me, she slapped me, and I lunged out at her. Then, her retarded friends jumped me. End of story."

"Interesting. But, that's not what I heard from them. They said that you, without reason, attacked them. They said that they only fought back in self-defense." Mr. Foxx (That shall be the principal's name, since I can't think of any other name. ...) said cooly.

"Oh yeah, sure. I'd just attack five people without a reason. I'm not that stupid." Zoe spat.

"Watch your tone with me, Miss Jin." Mr. Foxx warned.

"What Zoe is saying is true," Rei finally spoke. "She was not the one to attack them first."

Mr. Foxx stared at Rei, examining him a bit, before he asked, "And did you take part in this fight, Mr. Kon?"

Rei was silent for a moment, before he replied, "Yes, I did."

Zoe looked at Rei, shocked. She couldn't understand why he'd want to get in trouble for something he didn't even do.  
Mr.Foxx looked at Rei sternly, before looking down at his desk.

"Well then, since both of you have confessed to taking part in the fight, I am going to suspend both of you for two weeks, and when your suspension is over, you will be in detention for another week," he spoke much softer and calmly now.

"Two weeks, huh? I was only suspended for five days for the last fight I got into." Zoe commented monotonously.

"Yes, well last time you didn't nearly break a girl's jaw." Mr. Foxx said. "I'm going to call your parents to come and get the two of you. Go get your things and come back here to wait for them."

Zoe and Rei left the office, walking down the now empty hallway. Rei walked down a different hall than Zoe to go to his locker. Zoe walked off to her locker, finding her books still on the ground, where she had dropped them earlier. Zoe sighed and picked them up, opening her locker and shoving them inside. She grabbed only her backpack and jacket before going back to the office. She found Rei already there, sitting in one of the chairs by the door. Zoe sat next to him, staring at him in silence for quite some time.

"Rei, you didn't do anything. Why are you getting yourself into trouble?" She asked.

"Hey, I know what kind of shit your parents are gonna put you through for this...and I guess that, being your best friend, I don't want you to have to go through that alone." Rei explained, smiling as if the situation was a happy one.

"But your parents are going to literally kill you for this." Zoe said.

"I know, I know." Rei sighed.

Zoe smiled weakly and looked down at the ground, whispering as softly as she could, "You're always there for your friends...that's why I love you so much..."

"Huh? Did you say something?" Rei asked.

"No, I didn't say anything." Zoe said quickly.

Rei nodded and looked at the office door, just as Zoes VERY unhappy-looking mother stormed in. Upon seeing the massive anger in her facial features, Zoe groaned. She was going to be in deep shit once she got home.


	3. Rescue Attempt and a Fire?

_Raging flames. That's all Zoe saw. They danced wildly and were growing even larger and taller by the minute. All Zoe could do was stand there, so very helpless, and watch her house be devoured by the monstrous fire._

Zoe woke up, once again, sitting straight up in bed, covered in sweat. her hand was trembling as she raised it to brush her black hair out of her face. It was becoming total Hell just to get herself to go to sleep, now. These nightmares were plaguing her mind, refusing to go away.  
Sighing, she gazed over at her alarm clock.

"3:10 PM. When did I fall asleep?" Zoe mumbled to herself.

Zoe guessed that it was after her parents, mostly her mother, had chewed her out and sent her to her room. The lack of sleep from the night before must've gotten to her.  
As Zoe stumbled out of bed, she heard something hitting her window. Zoe turned around and looked at her window. There were no tree branches around that could tap it. She decided that she was just hearing things and started heading towards her bedroom door. As she walked across her room, she saw her bird, Raven, fast asleep in her bed,Kai had given it to her as a birthday present. Zoe made a mental note to wake her up later; she slept way too much. As soon as Zoes hand was on the doorknob, she heard the tapping noise again. she turned around and strode over to the large window, opening it. Bright sunlight filled her eyes, making her close them for a moment. Zoe hated sunlight with a passion, which might be the reason she was so pale. When she reopened her eyes, she looked down, seeming a bit shocked at what she saw.

"What are you doing here?" Zoe asked in a whisper.

"What? Are you not happy to see me?" Rei asked, prentending that Zoe had hurt his feelings. "Fine, I understand. I'll just go home and rot away in my room."

Zoe sighed with a smile playing across her lips. He was so dramatic.

"What do you want, you dork?" Zoe asked.

"First off, I'm very proud to be a dork. You're one too, so don't insult your own kind." Rei started. "And second, I just snuck out of my house to see if you'd like to come with me to the mall."

"Why the mall?"

"It's the only place where we can walk to from here." Rei replied.

Zoe thought for a moment, considering what consequences could come with sneaking out, before deciding, "Screw the consequences. I'm going to the mall."

"I'll come." Zoe said to Rei. Zoe looked around the window, finding no way to climb down. "Wait there, I'll have to sneak out from the front door."

"Just jump! I'll catch you, I promise!" Rei smiled.

"Sure. I remember when you said that the _last_ time."

Thinking back to a couple of years ago, Zoe remembered when she had a small cold and her parents wouldn't even let her out of her room, in fear that the cold would get worse. Zoe didn't really blame them. When she were younger, she were extremely vulnerable to illness and disease. Rei had come to sneak her out of the house, and somehow coaxed her to jump out of the window. He swore that he'd catch her. Ha. Like that happened. Zoe ended up breaking her leg, which only got her kept in her room for an even longer time.

"Oh yeah..." Rei laughed nervously.

Zoe shut her window and hurried over to her bedroom door, opening it as slowly as she possible could. She looked around the hallway, seeing no one. Zoe quickly stepped out of her room and shut the door behind her. All Zoe could do was pray that her parents wouldn't look in there while she was gone. Zoe crept over to the stairs, looking down. She saw neither her mother or stepfather anywhere near the front door. But, she could hear the faint mumble of voices from the kitchen. she would have to be extra quiet. she went down the stairs, using her cat like grace, taking one step at a time. Before she knew it, she was right at the front door. Zoe grabbed the doorknob and turned it slowly, before fear filled her heart.

"Zoe," she heard her stepfather say. Zoe thought she had been caught and that she'd be in even more trouble. But, much to her relief, her stepfather hadn't seen her. "Zoe has been in far too many fights this year, Ann. We need to do something about it."

Zoe listened to a little of the conversation, before remembering Rei, who waited for her outside. Zoe opened the door slowly, slipped outside, and closed it behind her. She ran up to Rei, who waited for her at the sidewalk.

"Let's go." Zoe said.

Rei nodded and the two of them started walking down the sidewalk. They didn't live very far from the mall. It was still about a 20 minute walk, though.

"Judging by the look that your dad had on his face when he came into the office, I'm guessing that you went through Hell when you got home." Zoe said, breaking the awkward silence that had settled between the two of them.

"Yeah. He actually swore to me that if I got into another fight, he'd take me out of this world." Rei laughed. "What about you?"

"Oh, it wasn't too bad. But maybe that's because I've heard my mom's lectures so many times. She told me that if I ever got into a fight where I got seriously hurt, she wouldn't be there to help me." Zoe said.

"I see. You don't need her anyways, 'cus I'll be there to help."

"Aww, how sweet."

"I know I am." Rei said proudly.

The two talked about random things for the rest of the walk, until the mall came into view. They both hurried over to it, going inside. It wasn't as packed as it usually was, so they were thankful.

"Where should we go first?" Rei asked.

Zoe grabbed his hand and started marching forward, saying, "To Suncoast we go!" (I don't know about everyone else, but Suncoast is this awesome anime/movie/manga store at the mall where I live. It fucking rocks!)

So, the two went to Suncoast. Zoe looked through the anime DVDs, finding none that she wanted right now. After a while, both of them left.

"I get to choose where we go next!" Rei said, guiding her across the mall.

And where did he lead her to? Right to Victoria's Secret. It was actually quite fun being in there with Rei. The two joked around and had an awesome time, until they were kicked out. they exited the store, laughing harder than they had in a long time.

"God, that was fun," Zoe managed to say once she had stopped laughing.

"Exactly. Now, I have another place for us to go to!" Rei said, grabbing Zoes hand.

Zoe absolutely loved being able to spend time alone with Rei like this. She did love going places with Kai and the others, too, but it was just wonderful for it to be just her and Rei for once.  
Rei and Zoe went everywhere they could, getting kicked out of half the stores. They both decided to go to the food court and get something to eat. Well, neither of them were hungry, so both of them ended up getting just a drink. Rei drank all of his quickly, then dug into the cup.

"What are you doing?" Zoe asked, sort of weirded out by Rei's actions.

"Looking for an ice cube that's just the right size..." he explained, taking out a large ice cube.

"What's it fo-AHH!"

Rei put the ice cube down the back of her shirt. Zoe jumped up and got the ice out of her shirt, and then poured her whole drink on Rei. They were making a huge scene, but didn't care. After a moment or two of pretending to be angry at the other person, they both started laughing hysterically. That was when the mall manager, or who they assumed to be the mall manager, asked the two of them to leave.

As the two of them walked towards Zoes house, she continued to laugh. They had been walking for a while in silence after Zoe stopped laughing, before Rei broke that silence.

"I believe that is the best time I have ever had at the mall," he said.

"Me too." Zoe agreed, nodding with a smile on her face.

But, that smile soon disappeared as she neared her house. The loud wail of a fire truck met her ears as Zoe wondered why so many people were crowded around up ahead...

Zoes eyes widened in pure horror as she pushed her way through the large crowd, which had been formed only a couple of feet away from her house. her BURNING house.

"Oh my God..." She heard Rei gasp from somewhere behind her.

The wild flames grew even wilder, devouring her house as firefighters tried to subdue them. It didn't seem to be working that well. Zoe quickly realized that her nightmare from earlier in the day...had come true.

"Zoe!"

Zoe was in a daze as she stared over to where the voice had come from. She saw Chris and her mother running towards her, Chris holding Raven's birdcage. Once they reached Her, her mother pulled her into a tight, rib-crushing hug.

"Oh, thank God! Zoe, where in the fuck were you?!" Chris shouted, though he sounded a bit relieved that she was safe. "We thought you had ran away or something...either that or that you were still somewhere in the house!"

"I...I was at the mall with Rei." She replied, finally pulling herself out of the daze. "Now would you guys mind telling me what happened here?"

"We don't know." Yher mother replied, finally releasing Zoe from her hug. "One minute we were in the kitchen talking, and then we were rushing around the house trying to find you, flames shooting up in all directions."

"I managed to get her out safely, though." Chris said, handing Raven's cage over to Zoe.

Zoe was thrilled that there was _some_ good news amidst the horror and panic. her pet crow was sound asleep in her cage, which came as no surprise to Her. Raven slept more than she did anything else.   
Police shooed the crowd away as the fire was finally extinguished. But, practically nothing was left of Zoes house. Everything was pretty much...gone. Zoe didn't want to think of the fire or see her house as the police pulled her parents aside to question them. So, she set Raven's cage down gently and opened it. This woke the crow up. She stared up at her with her beady black eyes, before cawing softly. Zoe took her out of the cage and placed her on her shoulder, where she sat obediently. Zoe had no idea why the crow was so obedient and loyal, or why she stayed with her when she had plenty of opportunities to fly away. And, many people considered a crow a very unlikely and odd pet.

"I hate that evil bird." Rei said, staring at Raven with malice within his intense Golden eyes.

"That's only because she bit you." Zoe laughed, the thoughts of the house burning down seeming to disappear.

"Exactly! She bit my finger when I didn't do anything at all to her." Rei whined childishly.

Zoe grinned, saying calmly, "You _did_ do something her; you poked her with a stick! Here's some words of advice: No pokey equals no bitey."

Zoe and Rei argued about this for a while, until her parents came back over to them. Both looked equally tired, depressed, and frustrated.

"Well, we still have no clue about how the fire started, and we won't know until someone comes to investigate it. I suppose we could go get a hotel room for tonight...but I don't know what will happen afterwards." Chris mumbled, sounding sadder than he ever had before.

Suddenly, a happy look crossed Rei's face.

"You guys can stay at our house!"

Zoes mother smiled warmly before she spoke, "That's very generous of you to offer, Rei. But, we don't want to be a burden. It's probably best if we just go get a hotel room."

"You guys wouldn't be a burden. My mom and dad would be more than happy to take you guys in, I'm sure of it."

Chris and Zoes mother looked at one another, seeming to have a mental conversation or something, before they nodded.

"If your parents agree to it, I suppose we can stay over." Chris said.

Rei smiled and nodded. "They'll be more than happy to let you guys stay."


	4. The Next Day

After Rei had taken Zoe and her parents to his house, he got yelled at by his parents for sneaking out of the house. He explained what had happened, and just as he had said earlier, his parents were more than happy to take Them guys in. The Kons had a very nice house. Zoe had been there a lot of times, but had just noticed how beautiful the house was. There were four bedrooms, one being a guest room, two bathrooms, a huge living room, and an equally large kitchen. There were two floors, the guest bedroom and Mr. and Mrs. Kon's bedroom on the second floor and the other two on the first. Rei's mother suggested that Zoe and her parents share the guest room, but she weren't too fond of that idea, so opted to sleep on the couch in the living room instead. The couch was actually a lot comfier than a bed.

Zoe was currently lying down on the couch, staring blankly up at the shadowy ceiling. It was a couple of minutes after midnight. Raven's cage was beside the couch, the crow wide away, just like her. But, Raven was always up at night. Zoe was beginning to think that the crow was nocturnal. Zoe were only awake because of fear and because she was thinking a lot. The fear came from her nightmares. What if she had another nightmare and it came true, too? And, what if the one about her and Rei was going to come true...?  
Zoe would rather not think about that.  
What she was thinking about was her house, about all the things she had lost in the fire. She had lost books, pictures, drawings, poems and stories she had written, and pretty much all of her clothing.

Great...there was another issue...clothing. Besides what she currently wore, and had been wearing all day, she had no other clothes. All had been turned to ash by the fire. She sighed and shook her mind clear; she didn't want to think about anything anymore. Though, now she realized how silent it was. The silence was starting to irritate her, when...

"Can't sleep, huh?"

You were thankful that Kai's voice broke the pressing silence.Kai lives with the Kon's also as he was abandoned at a very young age by his grandfather Voltaire, for not abiding by the rules, the Kon's hapily took him in as one of their own.

Zoe sat up as he walked over and took a seat on the other end of the couch.

"Yeah...I've been thinking too much." She sighed.

"Ah, I see. Thinking too much...about me." Kai joked, grinning.

"Woah, Kai making a joke?...Sure, I was thinking about you. That's exactly right." Zoe spoke with sarcasm evident in her tired voice.

"Of course you weren't thinking of me! You were far too busy thinking about Rei to do so." Kai laughed.

Zoe was thankful for the darkness, because she could feel herself blushing.

"Whatever you say. And why are you up? Let me guess...you couldn't sleep because you were fantasizing about Max, Tyson, or Kenny? Yeah, that's it." Zoe snickered.

Kai didn't look too humored as she laughed. he punched her in your shoulder, saying coolly, "That's not very funny."

"You're right...it would be a hell of a lot funnier if it weren't true!"

"Okay, that's it!" Kai snapped.

Before she knew it, she was being hit with a series of playful punches. Neither of them realized how loud they were being. When Kai finally stopped attacking Zoe, he laughed and sat back on the other end of the couch...just to have a shoe fly out of nowhere and hit him right in the head.

"Agh, God damnit, Rei! What the fuck is with you and your obsession of throwing large objects at people's heads?!" Kai cried out.

"I don't have an obsession with it, but I have no other option when you guys are so fucking loud that you could raise the fucking dead!" Rei shouted, sounding grumpy.

When Zoe saw him, it took all she had to keep herself from laughing.  
Rei looked so...cute. His eyes had tiredness within them and his hair was a total mess. He was wearing a black t-shirt that was a little too big for him and some regular black pajama pants. He wobbled slightly, proving that he was just barely awake. He looked so damn adorable.

"Okay, fine. Everything is going to be completely silent now! I'm going back to bed anyways." Kai mumbled.

Without another word, Rei turned and stumbled back into the hallway from which he had come.

"See what you did?! You made me attack you and caused a shoe to hit me in the head! It's all your fault!" Kai spat, fake anger in his voice.

"Whatever. Go to bed before Rei comes back and throws something harder." Zoe smiled. "Goodnight."

"Yeah, good-fucking-night."

Kai then got up and walked to the hallway Rei had gone into. A moment later, she heard his bedroom door close. Smiling, she lay back down on the couch. Zoe closed her eyes, no longer afraid of having any more nightmares, and the images from her nightmares not there anymore.  
...They had been replaced by the irresistibly cute images of Rei...

Zoes eyes slowly fluttered open, though her vision was rather blurry at first. She blinked a couple of times until her vision cleared. Zoe then found herself staring into someone's deep Golden eyes. Zoe wasn't expecting someone to be standing over her, so she let out a soft yell and tumbled off of the couch. The floor, much unlike the couch, was hard and cold. Zoe heard an eruption of laughter as she just lay there, completely motionless for a moment or two.

"Damn you...whoever you are. I can't tell right now..." She mumbled tiredly.

"I'll give you a hint. My name has an E in it."

"Fruit cake." She said, sitting up.

"Nope, wrong! My name is Rei," he stated, his voice sounding childish.

"Rei, fruit cake, they're the same thing." You smiled, finally looking up at Rei.

her heart seemed to stop upon seeing him. His ebony colored hair looked wet, as if he had just washed it, and was straggly. He his traditional chinese outfit but today he had a change, it was black and green. For some odd reason, he looked very different to Zoe. Well, one reason could be that you had never seen him in those clothes before. But there was still this weird difference...but yShe couldn't tell what it was.

Though, this weird difference was one that she liked...a lot.

"Come on, get up and go take a shower. It's Saturday and we're going back to the mall. You, Kai, Tyson, Kenny, Max, and I." Rei announced.

"Again? We were just there yesterday. And, aren't you and I still in trouble with our parents? Oh, and besides, I have no money to spend and no clean clothes to wear." she sighed as she stood up.

"Well, our parents will just have to deal with it. And about the clothes, that's why we're going. All of us, being the nice, wonderful people we are, have decided to chip in a get you some new clothes and such. It's the least we can do." Rei smiled kindly at you.

"That's so nice of you, but-"

"I don't wanna hear you say that you can't accept it. You will, because it's something I want to do for my friend, out of my kindness of my heart. It's something we all want to do for you."

Zoe couldn't help but smile now. She began to wonder if Rei was only a dream, because she just couldn't believe that someone could be so generous and thoughtful.

"Thank you." Zoe whispered, grinning. "But, since when do you have a heart?"

Rei glared at her and took a step forward. Zoe just laughed and rushed past Rei, upstairs, and into the bathroom to take a shower before he could do anything at all.

She took a quick shower and got out, finding that the clothes she had been wearing were dirty and didn't smell too good. Zoe heard a knock on the bathroom door, quickly wrapping a towel around herself. She cracked the door open and found Rei standing there. He shoved some clothes into her arms.

"Here's a shirt and some pants. Eh, they might be a little big on you, but it's all that I could find," he said, looking down at the ground.

"That's okay. Thanks." Zoe smiled and shut the door.

Surprisingly, the clothes fit rather well. The black t-shirt fit her perfectly, actually. Rei had even thrown in a black and red striped waist tie that she liked a lot. The black jeans she was provided with were a little baggy, but she liked them. They, like the ones Rei sometimes wore, were torn at the knees. Before she left the bathroom she brushed her hair ans tied it up losley to let it flow down her back.   
Zoe hurried downstairs to find Tyson and Max sitting on the couch in the living room, Max lazily flipping through the channels on the T.V., and Tyson bothering Raven. Kai and Rei were by the front door.

"Leave Raven alone, you evil person." Zoe said, bringing all attention to her.

"_Finally_! God, you were only in the shower for two hours!" Tyson groaned, leaving Raven alone so she could go back to sleep.

"Please, how would you know? You two just got here." Kai said in his usual manner.

"Oh, we have our ways. We see everything..." Max whispered evilly.

Tyson grinned and Zoe knew that some perverted words were about to come out of his mouth.

"Yeah, everything...like you in the shower, Zoe."

Zoe playfully slapped him, eye twitching.

"Say another perverted thing and I will make sure you NEVER have babies." She threatened in an eerily calm tone.

Tyson rubbed his cheek, where she had slapped him even though it was not even hard, still grinning.

"Hey, where's Kenny?" Zoe asked, finally noticing that her goggle-headed friend was missing.

"He said he had something to do and would meet up with us later." Max explained.

Zoe nodded. "I see."

"Okay, let's just go. We've got a whole Saturday to waste away at the mall." Rei said.

So, without another word from anyone, the five of them went outside.

"Your truck sucks ass, Max." Zoe commented, staring at the old, rusty pick-up truck in the driveway.

"Hey, don't be mean to my precious!" Max snapped.

"Okay...whatever. It's your crappy truck, after all." Zoe snickered.

Since only three people could fit in the truck, two people were going to have to ride in the back. Tyson, Max, and Kai all sprinted towards the truck, climbing inside.

"You guys fucking suck!" Zoe yelled, finally noticing that it was raining.

She mumbled things as her and Rei were forced to ride in the bed of the truck, the rain literally pouring down as Max drove down the road.

"I'm gonna kill those three when we get into the mall." Rei sighed, getting soaked by the rain.

"We would've been better off walking." Zoe mumbled.

The drive, thankfully, wasn't too long. Zoe and Rei hopped out of the bed of the truck and hurried into the mall, both of them soaked to the bone.

"I'm going to fucking KILL them." Rei repeated over and over to himself.

Tyson, Kai, and Max all came into the mall, laughing their heads off. Well, they _were_ laughing...until they saw the beyond-pissed-off look on Rei's face.

"Shit..." Tyson muttered.

The three of them ran off in all directions as Rei and Zoe charged for them.

After Rei and Zoe were done getting revenge on their three friends, the five of them started walking around. The first place they had gone was to Hot Topic, where Zoe bought a couple of band t-shirts, pants, and so on. She only bought enough clothes to get Her through each week. After they all left Hot Topic, thy ran into Kenny. The six of them had a wonderful time getting in trouble with the security guards and also getting kicked out of stores that they hated anyways.Well, they were having fun, until they ran into her...

"Rei, Kenny! Hey, you guys!"

Zoe cringed upon hearing the voice. Zoe groaned, as did Tyson and Max.

"Emily! Hi! It's been a while." Rei said cheerfully, pulling this Emily girl into a tight embrace.

Zoe despised Emily. She had grown up with her and known her since the day she was born, since her mother and her mother were best friends. Though, Zoe never did like Emily. She was always rude to her. Max and Tyson hated her too, but for some reason Rei and Kenny loved her. She was like their best friend.

"Hey, Zoe. I heard your house burned down. Are Chris and Ann okay?" Emily asked.

"Oh, yeah. They're just fine." Zoe answered, not wanting to talk to Emily.

"Good to hear." Emily said in a I-really-don't-give-a-shit kind of tone.

"Hey, how about you walk around with us. I really want to talk." Rei offered, smiling hopefully.

Emily smiled back and shook her head, saying softly, "No thanks. But, I was actually wondering if I could talk with you privately."

"Uh, okay. Sure." Rei nodded.

Zoe stared in despair as the two walked off, disappearing in a large crowd. Then, an odd feeling washed over Zoe...

...And she suddenly knew that things were going to change for the worst pretty damn soon.

OK i realise it should be mariah and not Emily here but i used mariah as the bitch in episode 2, so i couldn't use her as a friend to Rei could i, this idea popped into my head and i wanted to use it so i am gonna use emily and not mariah sorry. R&R please bye bye xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Dallas


	5. Surprise ?

Zoe stood by the main entrance to the mall outside, watching the rain continue to pour down. Tyson, Kenny, Kai and Max all stood around you, looking irritated.

"What time is it?" Zoe asked after a long, awkward silence had settled in.

Kenny looked down at his watch, a shocked expression crossing his face.

"Damn, we've been here all fucking day! It's nearly eight P.M." he said.

"Yeah, well we would've left a hell of a lot earlier if Rei hadn't have just walked off. We've been waiting here for him for too long. If he doesn't come out soon, then we'll just leave him here. He can walk home." Max grumbled.

Zoe nodded in agreement. she was getting tired and just wanted to go home, anyways. So, the five of them waited in silence for about ten more minutes. Rei still hadn't come out, even if the mall would be closing soon.

"Okay, that's it. Let's go." Tyson sighed.

The rain was still coming down as hard as it had been earlier. They hurried to where Max had parked the truck in the nearly empty parking lot and got in.

"No way in hell am I riding in the back again." Zoe mumbled to yourself.

Kai and Max also got in, and Kenny went to his car.

"I'm not riding in the back. I'll just go with Kenny-" Tyson began, before noticing that Kenny's car was already on its way down the street. "Fuck..."

Tyson looked like he was thinking for a moment, before he grinned. He jumped into the car and sat on Kai's lap.

"Okay, we can go now," he said happily.

"Get off of me!" Kai said though gritted teeth.

"Please, I don't weigh that much!"

"The hell you don't!"

Max started up the truck as Kai and Tyson argued. Zoe sighed, feeling like the perfect day had been ruined by Emily.

"How much do you weigh then, Tyson?" Kai asked in an agitated tone.

"None of your business." Tyson replied.

"Then I'm going to assume you weigh over 200 pounds."

"I don't weigh over 200 pounds!"

"Then how much do you weigh?!"

"None of your God damn business!"

"THEN I'M ASSUMING YOU WEIGH OVER 200 POUNDS!" Kai yelled louder than he had intended to.

"I DON'T WEIGH OVER 200 POUNDS!" Tyson yelled back.

"THEN HOW MUCH DO YOU FUCKING WEIGH?!"

Zoe listened to the two as the whole argument repeated itself. It was actually quite humorous. But, before the two could get any louder, Max pulled into the Kons' driveway. Zoe quickly crawled over Max and got out of the truck, the rain falling just a bit lighter than earlier.

"Get off of me NOW." Kai ordered.

"Fine, fine!" Tyson said, getting off of Kai's lap. "But I don't weigh over 200 pounds."

Kai hopped out of the truck, rubbing his legs.

"Then how much do you weigh?"

"None of your business."

Zoe grabbed Kai's arm and pulled him into the house before the argument could start up again. As soon as they stepped inside, Zoe regretted it.

"So, you snuck out again?" Her stepfather asked coolly from where he sat in the living room.

"I didn't sneak out-"

"Kai, where is Rei at?" Mrs. Kon asked her Kai (who i have decided can call them mum and dad because they might as well be), the tone of her voice colder than Zoe had ever heard it before.

"Mom, Zoe and Rei didn't sneak out. In fact, Tyson, Max, Kenny, Rei, and I all took Zoe to go buy new clothes at the mall. We wanted to help out with the situation." Kai explained.

And then everyone was suddenly quiet. Zoe watched as the anger on all of their faces seemed to just melt away.

"That's..." was all that Mrs. Kon could mutter.

"That's so very kind of you all to do." Zoes mother finished for her.

"Yes, it is. But, it still doesn't explain where Rei is at." Mr. Kon said.

"Do you guys remember Emily Ravelt?" Zoe asked, receiving a nod from everyone. "Well, we ran into her at the mall and Rei just sort of walked off with her."

As soon as everyone heard the name Emily, it was as if they all forgot about being angry or being proud that Kai and the others had done a good deed.

"Emily, huh? I haven't seen that sweet girl in so long" Chris said with a smile.

Right as Chris finished, the front door was heard opening and closing rather quickly. Zoe looked over just in time to see Rei hurry past everyone, go down the hallway, and slip into his room without saying a word to anyone.

...? Everyone went silent again. Why had Rei just hurried away like that? He didnt even say "hi".

"That was...odd." Max finally said.

Zoe set the bags of clothes She had bought down beside the couch and walked towards the hallway. She heard the faint mutter of words back in the living room as everyone started talking again. Zoe stopped in front of Rei's bedroom door, wondering if she should just leave him alone. What if he was angry at her and the others for leaving him at the mall? Zoe sighed softly and started to walk away.

"You can come in, Zoe." She heard him say from the other side of the door.

Zoe turned back around and opened the door, stepping inside the dark, messy room. Rei was sitting on his bed, looking down at the ground. He looked like he was lost in thought. Zoe shut the door behind her and stepped forward a bit.

"Is something wrong?" She asked somewhat timidly.

Rei looked up and smiled, shaking his head.

"No. Everything is perfect. I have to tell you something."

Zoe felt sort of nervous now. This nervousness increased when Rei stood and walked over to her, still smiling. He took her hands into his and looked deeply into her eyes. Then there was this short, unbearable silence...until he finally spoke. But the words that came from his mouth were ones that crushed Zoe on the inside and ripped her heart wide open.

"Emily and I are a couple now, Zoe."

All Zoe could do after hearing Rei's news was put a fake smile on she put her "emotion mask" on, She was almost as good as Kai.

"Oh wow..." She said, voice shaking slightly. "I'm so happy for you!"

Rei smiled, saying, "I knew you would be. That's why I told you first."

"Yeah. Well, I need to go talk to Chris and mom now." Zoe said quickly, just wanting to get away from Rei.

Rei nodded as she hurried out of his room. Zoe wanted to be alone for a while, so she hurried upstairs and went into the guest bedroom, locking the door behind her. She sat down on the neatly made bed, looking down at the floor...before silent tears started to leak from her eyes. As she felt them roll down her cheek, she wiped them away. Zoe didn't want to cry...she wouldn't let herself cry...she couldn't keep herself from crying...

She sat on the bed, crying quietly for at least two hours. After a long while more, there was a knock at the door.

"Hey, Zoe? Are you okay?" Kai asked softly.

Zoe took in a deep, shaky breath and wiped away the remainder of her tears, replying to Kai's question in monotone, "No. I'm not okay."

**3 Months Later**

Zoe muttered curses under her breath, walking down the icy sidewalk towards school. Snow drifted lazily down from the dark-clouded sky.

"I can't believe I missed the bus. Out of all days, why did it have to be today?" She groaned to herself.

Even with her heavy White coat on, she was cold. _Really_ cold. She wondered angrily to herself why Rei hadn't waken her up when the bus came. Zoe had gotten up about fifteen minutes late, to find that Rei was already gone. It made her angry and curious at the same time.

Zoe sighed deeply and hurried up to the school once it came into view. She rushed inside, knowing that Mr. Vander was going to be pissed off at her for being late to his class. She went to her locker and got the things she'd need before walking off towards the Chemistry room.

"Oh, nice of you to finally join us, Miss Jin." Mr. Vander commented snidely.

Zoe glared towards the back of the room, where Rei sat at a table, and said coolly, "Sorry. I...overslept."

"That's nice. Now go take a seat and join in on this exciting lesson," he said, his tone becoming sarcastic towards the end of his sentence.

Zoe sighed again as she went to the table Rei and you sat at, sitting across from him as Mr. Vander began to drone on about something.

"Thanks for waking me up, asshole." She spat angrily.

Rei frowned.

"I'm sorry. I left really early this morning, though. I went to the park with Emily and then we walked to school together," he explained.

Zoe cringed upon hearing the name "Emily". She was getting absolutely tired of her hanging around you and the guys all the time, and she was also absolutely tired of Rei and her making out whenever they all went anywhere.

"Yeah, whatever..." she mumbled, taking out her grey notebook that contained all of her poems and stories that she wrote when she was bored.

As the class dragged on, Zoe found it harder and harder to write anything and even harder to keep her eyes open. Forgetting all about the past incident in Mr. Vander's class, she folded her arms on the cold table and laid her head down on them. And, before she knew it, she was fast asleep.

Well...she had been fast asleep...

Zoe awoke to something very hard coming in contact with her head.

"THE ANSWER IS 42!" she screamed randomly, jumping up.

But, she had jumped up so quickly that she had lost her balance...just like before...only this time she fell backwards, tripped over her chair, and ended up on the ground, her head throbbing with pain.

"Just like last semester...just without the breaking of my ruler or very expensive chemicals." Mr. Vander laughed.

Her already throbbing head throbbed more when the whole class erupted into a fit of laughter.

'_Why did I let myself fall asleep...?_' She thought miserably to herself.

She closed her eyes, not wanting to get up. But, someone grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. Zoe put her fallen chair back in its place and sat down, refusing to look up at anyone.

'_Now the whole school will be talking about this for only God knows how long. As if I didn't have enough problems already..._'

Just as Zoe had predicted, the whole school was talking about the little sleeping incident by lunchtime. She didn't feel like eating when she walked into the cafeteria, so she just went and sat down at her usual spot. It was a round table in the back of the cafeteria, in the corner, so shadows usually covered it. It was perfect for Kai. Kai and Kenny joined her there shortly after, both grinning from ear to ear.

"We heard about your little incident in Mr. Vander's class." Kai said.

Zoe could tell that he was trying hard not to laugh.

"I figured you would've learned your lesson by now." Kenny said, and then burst out laughing, which set Kai off.

"Haha, real funny. I'm laughing so fucking hard right now, can't you see?" Zoe growled with sarcasm dripping from each word.

"Aww, lighten up. You have to admit that it was funny." Tyson snickered, sitting down at the table with his tray of food in his hands.

"It wasn't funny to me. First, I overslept and missed the bus. Next, I receive a huge headache from being hit in the fucking head with a ruler and also get talked about AGAIN for an incident that is almost exactly like one from last semester. Then, my friends won't let the subject drop, just like all of the other fools at this school. And, right now, just to randomly let you all know, I'm getting beyond fucking tired of having to be around Emily and Rei when they are sucking face!" Zoe shouted, all her feelings and thoughts exploding out.

Zoe knew that all of the people around her heard everything she said, but she didn't care. Zoe jumped up from her seat at the table and stormed out of the cafeteria. She tried to calm down, deciding to go outside and get some fresh air. She walked down the silent, empty halls until she reached the main entrance to the school. She hurried outside, taking in a deep breath of the cold, but fresh, winter air. It soothed her, calmed her shaky nerves. Sighing softly, she leaned against the wall beside the entrance and stared blankly into space, trying to collect her thoughts. The past 3 months had been pure Hell. Her parents were always gone now, searching for a new home, which they just couldn't find. Besides that, Chris had been fired from his previous job and was trying to get a new one. That, also, wasn't going too well. But, the icing on the whole cake was Emily and Rei. They were the most talked about couple in the school. And since Emily was in the "in" crowd, so was Rei now. And what that meant for Zoe was that she saw less of Rei now and barely ever hung out with him anymore. When she did hang out with him, he and Emily were always on each other. It disgusted, disturbed, and depressed her It was as if her life was spiraling downwards, being consumed by pain and sadness. Yeah, the past 3 months had been pure Hell alright...pure, torturing, unbearable Hell.

"Zoe...?"

She were pulled from her thoughts as Kai's voice met her ears. She looked over to see him standing in front of her, a worried look upon his face.

"I'm sorry I exploded like that..." Zoe mumbled softly. "You guys were just giving me a hard time, I shouldn't of gotten so damn bitchy."

"No, you had the right to be so damn bitchy. We shouldn't have been bothering you when we could clearly see that you were in a bad mood." Kai said.

Zoe sighed and looked down at the snowy ground.

"Why did Emily have to step into the picture? Life was so wonderful without her around..." Zoe murmured, though it was more to yourself than to Kai.

"I know. I hate that little bitch just as much as you do. We all know that she doesn't truly love Rei." Kai sighed, and then silence enveloped the area. But, Kai quickly shattered this silence, "And we all know, well, at least I do, that your love for him is true and honest."

Zoe looked back up at Kai, shocked.

"Wha...? How'd...?" was all that she could get out.

Kai grinned, saying, "Oh, come on! It's so obvious."

"Obvious only to you." Zoe smiled weakly.

Kai took a step towards Zoe and pulled her into a friendly hug.They both stood there in silence for a long while, until they finally pulled away from each other.

"Now, do you think you're ready to go back inside? You won't be too embarrassed, will you? I mean...everyone did hear your little outburst."

"I'll be embarrassed, alright..." Zoe sighed as the two of them headed back inside.

"If it helps any, Rei didn't hear anything you said. He and Emily were somewhere else and came into the cafeteria after you had left." Kai said.

"It helps a little." Zoe nodded, the two of them going back into the cafeteria, where Zoe received odd glances from people.

'_A little...but not a lot..._'


	6. FINALLY!

Zoe stood in the corner, wondering silently to herself how the Hell Rei convinced her to come to this stupid party in the first place. She didn't know a single person there. Zoe took a quick glance around the room, which was filled with people who were either drunk, passed out, or dancing.

Nope.

She saw no one she knew, and she had no idea where Rei and Emily had ran off to. And, besides, she didn't want to know. Zoe was contemplating leaving the party when someone just suddenly punched her in her shoulder.

"Fuck!" She shouted, but it was barely heard over to roaring music.

Zoe glared over, expecting to see Rei, but instead saw Emily with an evil grin playing across her lips. Zoe felt her eyes burn with hatred as soon as she saw her.

"Wonderful. The slut patrol is here." Zoe muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Emily asked.

"Nothing." She replied.

"Whatever. I just came to ask how you're enjoying this wonderful party and also how you're enjoying not being with Rei."

Zoe could've sworn flames were burning in her eyes for a moment, because they were starting to sting really badly. Perhaps it was just tears that were forming...

"Shut the fuck up," Zoe growled lowly.

She knew that Emily knew about how Zoe felt for Rei. She knew that she had from the very beginning. It just took her 'til now to realize that she was only doing all of this to hurt her more than she already was.

Emily leaned in closer, so that no one but Zoe and her would hear the conversation, that horrid grin still on her face as she spoke, "Listen, I just want you to be there when I break his heart. I want you to see how badly it tears him up...I want you to see him cry-"

Emily was on the ground in a split second, Zoes fist where she had once been standing. Zoe clenched her teeth to keep herself from screaming, because that was all she felt like doing at the moment. So, instead...she ran. People were gasping and hurrying over to Emily as Zoe ran outside, out of the strange house, into the cold, dark night. Zoe stood on the snowy front lawn, resisting the urge to kill the first thing that she saw. It just pissed her off beyond belief that Emily would play with Rei...someone who was so kind and sweet, and very considerate of other people's feelings.

"What the fuck, Zoe?!" Rei's angered voice broke the thick silence that had formed.

Zoe didn't make eye contact with Rei, nor did she speak. She felt like doing neither.

"Would you mind telling me why the hell you punched my girlfriend?" he demanded an answer.

Zoe didn't respond.

Rei's eyes narrowed as he strode forward and grabbed Zoe by your shoulders, forcing her to look up at him.

"Give me a fucking answer, God damnit!"

"You want a fucking answer?" Zoe shouted. "Fine then! Here's your fucking answer! Emily is just playing with you! She told me this, hence the reason I punched her. She's just getting your feelings high enough so that you will be hurt even more when she lets you down! And she knows that when I see you hurt, it'll hurt me twice as bad."

Zoe closed her eyes and took in deep breaths, waiting for Rei to say something.

"And you expect me to believe that bullshit?" Rei asked, his tone bitter and full of rage.

Zoe shook her head and pushed Rei's hands off of her shoulders. Zoe didn't reopen her eyes as she started to storm down the sidewalk. Zoe didn't hear Rei following her. But, he stopped Zoe another way...

"And, Zoe, why in the hell would it hurt you if I was hurt?" he called to you.

Zoe stopped. Staring blankly into space, she slowly turned herself around. Snow had just begun to fall down from the sky as she focused all her attention on Rei. He held a stern, cold look on his face. It was one that was demanding an answer from her.

"Why...?" Zoe spoke softly, but she knew he could hear you. "I don't know, Rei...maybe why I care so much...maybe why I'm hurt when you are...is because I love you so fucking much."

Zoe felt her heart stop..._literally_ stop. The secret she had kept from everyone ever since she was thirteen years old had just broken free and escaped. Rei knew now. Zoe watched as shock replaced the anger on Rei's face and knew she couldn't face him right now. Zoe turned and ran as fast as she possibly could. Zoe ran blindly, letting her feet take her wherever they wanted to go. The homes that just flew by her as she ran were soon replaced with tall buildings, which were replaced with tombstones after a while longer.

Zoe dropped to her knees right in front of a tombstone with an angel statue on top of it. Zoe recognized it as the one from her dream. It was exactly like the one in her dream...except that it _did_ have a name on it. Two names, in fact. Tears slid silently from her golden eyes as she read the two names inscribed on the tombstone. Even if she had been to this grave many times before, it was terribly painful to gaze at it right now.

ZHEN JIN  
1960-1985  
_Taken away from us all so suddenly. He is in Heaven with his daughter, looking over her and all of his loved ones._

It was unbelievably hard for you to look at the second name.

LING JIN  
1976-1985  
_In God's arms she waits for the rest of her family to join her._

Zoe couldn't stop herself from crying. Along with all that had happened earlier, painful memories of the car accident were flooding back to her. Zoe could see everything, as if it were all happening again...

She saw the horrible wreck before her and the saddened look on the young paramedic's face as he informed her mother that Ling had died and that Zoes father was just barely alive...just _clinging_ to life until he could see his wife and other daughter one last time. Zoe could hear his voice echo in her head, his raspy, soft voice, as he had told her that he loved Zoe and would always be with her. It was just like all the dramatic movies. He stayed long enough to say what he had to, and then let his soul descend...

"Don't cry..."

Zoe jumped slightly. Rei was so...sneaky. He always just popped up everywhere.

"Just go away." Zoe murmured, not even trying to hide the depression in her monotone voice.

Rei, of course, wouldn't just leave her alone. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. Zoe looked down, avoiding eye contact, but he forced her to look at him. They both just stared at each other for a long time, until Rei finally spoke.

"Did you mean what you said back there?"

"I'd rather not talk about it-"

"Just answer me, Zoe. Give me a straight-forward answer! Don't try to veer around the question!" Rei shouted.

Zoe suddenly smiled. It was a saddened and weak, yet kind, smile.

"Yeah...I did." Zoe said in a dreamy-like tone.

Rei looked down at the ground, not saying a word to her now. But now she wanted his attention. Zoe had to say what she had to say. She held his face between her hands and made him look up at her.

"And even if you don't love me back, I will always feel how I do right now about you." Zoe said in a tone so serious that she even scared herself.

Rei looked like he was about to say something, but Zoe didn't give him a chance to. her lips collided with his for a short, sweet moment, before she pulled away and ran off into the darkness of the cemetery...

Zoe had only been running for a short while when someone grabbed her arm and spun her around roughly. She knew it was Rei. She was about to go off running again, but his actions were faster than hers. Before she knew what was going on, his lips were pressed hard against hers. The action shocked Zoe so much that she actually gasped. Rei took his chance and quickly slipped his tongue into her mouth. Zoe stumbled back a bit, taking Rei with her. Zoe was getting dizzy. Her reactions to kisses had never been really good. Zoe always got woozy and nervous.

Zoe thought she was going to fall, for She kept stumbling backwards, but she felt her back press up against a tree that had been behind her. Rei hadn't broken the kiss at all, even when She started to stumble.

Zoe seemed to be in a daze now, wondering if everything that was happening was real or just another one of her twisted nightmares. Rei placed his hands on her hips and deepened the kiss, but she did nothing at first. She finally snapped out of her little daze, heart racing as she started to kiss him back. Zoe placed her hands on either side of his face, pulling him closer to her. She was in Heaven for what felt like forever, until they both finally had to pull away to breathe. Zoe looked at him...he was smiling for the first time all night.

"I...don't know what to say..." Zoe whispered softly, almost timidly.

"Then don't say a word. Come on, let's just go home." Rei said, still smiling at her.

Zoe nodded as the two of them started walking towards the cemetery exit. It was funny...Zoe had gone from pissed off, to really sad, to completely depressed, to happier than anyone on the face of the planet in a very short amount of time. They both walked in complete silence down the snowy sidewalk, Zoe feeling a bit awkward now.

They had been walking for about twenty or so minutes when Rei's house was seen up ahead. Zoe was relieved to see the house, because she was tired and confused and just wanted to go to sleep. But, as she started going up the steps to the porch, Rei stopped her.

"I want to talk with you for a minute," he said. Zoe listened intently as he went on, "I never really realized that you felt that way about me...I mean, Tyson would always tease me when we were younger by saying things like, 'You're going to go out with Zoe someday, I know it. She really likes you, you know.' And I'd always just roll my eyes and ignore him, you know what Tyson is like, thinking that it was all just a joke. I never thought that it was true. But, anyways...I just wanted to say that...I feel the same, and that I'm going to break up with Emily tomorrow."

Zoe smiled warmly, praying to God that this wasn't just another nightmare. She prayed that she wouldn't suddenly wake up to find that none of it ever happened. Because, if she did, she didn't know what she'd do.

"This is...the best day ever." Zoe said with happiness in her voice.

Rei pulled her into a hug. Zoe smiled even more, putting her arms on his shoulders. She ran her fingers through his hair, which was unbelievably soft.

"Wow...your hair is really soft..." Zoe muttered absentmindedly.

Rei laughed, saying, "Yeah, I know. I wish I could say the same about your hair. Maybe I'll let you use some of my conditioner."

Rei, still laughing, pulled away from Zoe and ran into the house. She narrowed her eyes, running after him.

"That wasn't funny! My hair is just as soft as yours!" Zoe whined, stroking her jet black long hair.

Upon entering the house, Zoe saw that Kai, Tyson, Max, and Chris were all huddled around the window by the front door. But, when they saw Zoe and Rei come in, they hurried away from it and tried to act nonchalant.

"Oh, hey you two. How was that party?" Chris asked.

His voice cracked, as if he were holding back laughter. Zoe narrowed her eyes at him.

"You don't need to be ashamed, you two!" her mother, who was sitting on the couch in the living room, said cheerfully. "I think it's sweet that you two are finally going out!"

"It only took 'em forever." Mr. Kon said with a grin on his face.

Then, suddenly, RKenny came running through the front door. He ignored Zoe and Rei as he spoke to Tyson, Kai, and Max.

"You guys won't believe this! I saw Zoe running down the street earlier, so I followed her with my car, and she went to the cemetery. I was sorta worried 'cus she was crying...but then Rei came and everything got really weird! They were like, making out all of the sudden!" he shouted.

Everything was _really_ silent for a moment, before everyone, except for Zoe and Rei, burst out into laughter.

"You were...spying...on us?!" Zoe exclaimed.

Kenny turned paler than Kai as he turned around, finally noticing that Rei and Zoe were there.

"Shiiiit..."

"You are DEAD!"

Kenny screamed and ran down the hallway as Zoe chased him. Rei simply stood back and watched, smiling broadly. Tyson and Kai were literally rolling on the ground laughing, while Max was watching Zoe chase Kenny. Mr and Mrs. Kon were telling the two of them to stop before they broke something, and Chris and her mother were simply smiling.

So, about thirty minutes later Zoe finally got her revenge on Kenny (It had involved tackling him down the stairs, though, surprisingly, neither of them were hurt). Zoe sat down on the couch, in-between Rei and her mother. Zoe was really, really tired now.

"Oh, and before you seek revenge on anyone else, I thought you'd like to know that we found a house," her mother informed with a cheerful smile.

But Zoe heard none of this information, for she was already curled up beside Rei, fast asleep.


	7. An Old Friend Returns

It was so hard to breathe. Why...? Zoes eyes snapped open, her vision so blurry and her eyes suddenly stinging. She was so cold...she was..wet? She opened her mouth, only to have it fill with ice cold water. Zoe couldn't breathe at all now. She tried her hardest to move, but couldn't. It was as if her hands and feet were bound together...

...And she soon realized that they were.

Zoe didn't want to die this way...but there was nothing she could do. She looked up, seeing a blurry figure standing above her. And, even if she was underwater, she heard this figure speak so clearly.

"Won't you die tonight for love...?"

"Zoe, wake up already! Zoe!"

Her eyes opened wide as her loud screaming ceased. Rei sat on the edge of the couch she had been asleep on, a worried look on his face. Zoe took in a deep breath, shaking violently.

"Dear God...not another nightmare..." Zoe whispered to yourself.

"Are you okay...? You were screaming loud enough to wake the whole neighborhood." Rei said, smiling weakly.

Zoe felt tears come to her eyes. Why? She didn't know. Perhaps it was because the nightmare had scared her so badly. Whatever the reason was, she started crying silently. Rei frowned and crawled across the couch and sat down next to her, wrapping his arms around her. Zoe sat there and cried into Rei's chest for a while, until she managed to get control over herself.

"I never thought a nightmare could be that bad..." Rei murmured.

Zoe shook her head and explained everything to Rei. She told him about her first nightmare, about the nightmare that came true, and also about the nightmare she had just had. He was silent for a while after she finished explaining, looking as if he were lost in thought for a moment.

"I don't know why you'd dream of those kind of things." Rei said softly.

"Neither do I. They scare me senseless, though...because they're so fucking real." Zoe muttered.

Rei smiled and kissed her softly on the lips.

"Everything's gonna be okay, though," he said.

Zoe smiled back at him, feeling much better. It was good to finally have somewhere there to comfort her...

"You should try to get some sleep."

Zoe nodded and laid back down, even if she didn't want to go back to sleep. Rei got up off the couch, giving her a sympathetic look.

"I would love to stay with you here tonight...but my parenst would fucking freak if they found me with you on the couch in the morning. Well...goodnight, Zoe...I love you," he whispered to her, before he started walking down the hall.

Zoe frowned as she heard his bedroom door open and close. Zoe truly wished that he could've stayed with her, but also understood how badly his parents would freak out if they saw him and her asleep together on the couch. Mr. Kon would probably have a heart attack, assuming that something had happened between the two of them, and Mrs. Kon would more than likely faint. Though, she knew for a fact that her parents would just laugh and comment on how cute it was.

So, there she was, staring blankly up at the ceiling, like she had done many nights before. Even if Rei had comforted you, it didn't take away the lingering fear of her nightmares. She was trying her hardest to stay awake...but her intense fatigue took over. her eyes closed slowly, and she drifted off to sleep again...

**2 Weeks Later...**

"Holy hell...this house is huge..." Zoe mumbled in awe, looking around her new house.

"I know. That's what insurance can do for you." Chris smiled, standing beside her.

The house was a lot bigger than her old one, though it was a lot farther away from Rei's house than her old one had been. That was pretty much the only flaw with the house, everything else was...perfect. The house had two floors, two bathrooms, an enormous kitchen, an even bigger living room, and four bedrooms.

Zoe walked upstairs, going into the bedroom at the very end of the long hallway. The bedroom was completely empty and looked almost exactly like her old bedroom. Zoe smiled and knew that this was the room she wanted.

The bedroom door suddenly slammed shut, making her jump. Zoe spun around, coming face-to-face with Rei.

"Boo!"

"Ahh...yeah...scary. When did you get here?" Zoe asked, smiling.

"Just now. And, I brought a housewarming gift for you!" Rei announced.

"Really? Gimme!"

Rei smiled mischievously stroked her ears a little like he used to do when he knew something she didn't and wrapped his arms around her waist, drawing her closer to him.

"No, seriously...gimme the gift." Zoe said childishly, smoothing her ears down, Rei always made them a mess when he played with them.

"I am," he said, and then locked his lips with hers.

But, just as quickly as the kiss had started, it ended. They both heard Kai and Max's voices come nearer, so they pulled away from one another, frowning in disappointment.

"Come on, Max! What if they're doing something?! I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO SCRATCH MY EYES OUT!" Kai wailed.

The door opened, revealing Max, who looked amused, and Kai, who was freaking out, He always did when people kissed in front of him. Zoe and Rei weren't anywhere near each other anymore. Rei was by the huge window on the other side of the room and Zoe was still by the door. Kai calmed down, seeing that nothing bad was going on.

"What do you want?" Zoe asked somewhat tiredly.

"Oh, we just wanted to say hi." Max said casually.

"He was trying to get me to scratch my own eyes out." Kai muttered.

"...Okay then..."

There was an awkward silence suddenly.

"Yeah...we're gonna go now..." Max said, he and Kai slowly backing out of the room, Kai crossing his arms across his chest trying t keep up his usual manner not the kind where kissing freaks him out, shutting the door behind them.

"Now, where were we?" Rei smirked, walking back over to Zoe.

But, as he leaned in to kiss you again, she stepped away, grinning widely.

"Sorry, love, the moment was ruined..." Zoe laughed and started to run out of the room.

"You're mean!" Rei whined, following her.

Zoe grumbled curses to herself as she hurried down the long, empty hallways of her school. Once again, she had slept in. Both Chris and her mum had already left for work, and her alarm, for some reason, didn't go off. So, she ended up missing the bus and had to walk through the frigid coldness outside to school, which wasn't too far away anymore.

Zoe knew that, once again, Mr. Vander was going to be pissed off. She rarely got to his class on time, and, plus...he hated her. He truly did. He had even said so right to her face once before. It didn't matter to Zoe, because she hated him even more.  
Zoe wasn't exactly paying attention to where she was going, and ended up running right into something. She fell to the cold tile, landing hard on her back.

"Son of a fucking bitch!" she shouted, not meaning to be so loud, but her day was terrible so far and it was only morning.

"Ah, shit! I'm sorry!" a kind voice apologized.

Zoe looked up, seeing a boy about her age standing above her. He was rather handsome, in her opinion. The boy dark hair that was lenghthy but nit as long as Reis he had golden eyes also Zoe was pretty sure he was part Neko-Jin(why was she the only full blood? she was gonna think about that later) he had HUGE eyebrows. He was sort of tanned. He was tall and fit, looking as if he played sports.

"It's, uh...alright. It was my fault anyways." Zoe sighed, climbing to her feet and retrieving her backpack off of the ground.

"Well, I shouldn't have been just standing here like an idiot. I'm sort of lost...I'm new to this school," the boy said, rubbing the back of his head as if he were embarrassed.

"Oh, really? You look sort of familiar..." Zoe said, thinking that she had seen this boy's face somewhere before. "What's your name?"

"Lee," he replied.

As soon as he said his name, something clicked in her mind.

"Lee Chou...?" Zoe asked.

Lee looked somewhat shocked at first, but nodded his head.

"Uh, yeah...how'd you know my last na-"

Zoe almost knocked the poor boy over when she literally tackle-hugged him.

"I haven't seen you in seven fuckin' years, man!" Zoe cried.

"...Huh...?"

"I'm hurt that you don't remember me. Do you recall the name Zoe Jin?"

Lee was silent, before he nearly knocked _Zoe_ over with a powerful hug.

"Dear God, long time no see!" he laughed, letting her go after a while. "I didn't recognize you. You've really changed a lot since you were 10."

"Yeah, that usually happens when someone grows up. You haven't changed a bit, though. Rei and the others are going to flip when they see you!" Zoe smiled.

"I can't wait to see them! Is Kai still the closed in type he always has been?" Lee asked.

"Yeah." Zoe said, nodding her head.

Lee had been her only friend, besides Rei and the other four, when she was in Elementary school. Zoe had actually had a crush on him, until his parents died...  
When they died, he was shipped off to California to live with his grandmother and grandfather. Zoe had been heartbroken for the longest time, but then started to grow her love for Rei, and she forgot about Lee.

"Mind helping me find my classes?" he asked, holding his schedule out for her to examine.

Zoe took a look at it, smiling a bit once she had finished.

"This is great. You've got your first period with me and Rei, your second period with Tyson, and pretty much the rest of your classes with all of us." Zoe said cheerfully. "So, come on. I was just heading for Chemistry class anyway."

As the two of them walked down the seemingly endless hallways, they talked about everything that had happened while the two of them were seperated. Lee seemed shocked when Zoe told him about her and Rei, but quickly recovered with a smile and said that he always knew she'd be with him someday.

"It's a new record." Mr. Vander's droning voice was heard as Zoe and Lee entered the classroom. "You were twenty-seven minutes late. That's a new record for you Miss Jin--...er...--Who is this?"

"Lee Chou, he's a new student. I was just...showing him around the school." Zoe explained.

"...I see. Fresh meat. Well then, go take a seat and pay attention." Mr. Vander muttered, turning back to the chalkboard he had been writing on.

Zoe led Lee over to the table Rei and her sat at, Rei looking absolutely shocked.

"Holy fuck..." he murmured, staring at Lee for a long time, before he smiled. "It's been so long! God, it's good to see you!"

Lee grinned and nodded, saying, "It's good to see you too. You look even more like a cat than you use too, especially since your hair is a lot longer now."

"The only thing that's changed about you, my friend, is your age. You're exactly the same." Rei said, still smiling.

"You three be quiet and pay attention!" Mr. Vander snapped at them.

"Okay, don't have a bitch fit, asshole..." Zoe muttered under her breath as Mr. Vander continued the lesson.

When Tyson, Kenny, Kai, and Max all saw Lee later in the day, they really did flip out. Zoe had to pull Tyson away from Lee before he squeezed him to death.

"Calm down. Don't kill him, he just got here." Rei joked.

"How can I calm down? LEE IS BACK!! Tezch me guitar again!" Tyson asked.

"The only good thing Lee taught you on the guitar, Tyson, was to crack someone's head open with it." Kenny said.

"I told you that was just an accident." Tyson sighed. "It just slipped from my hands somehow."

"Sure it did...just keep telling yourself that."

"Okay, let's get off of the subject of Kenny getting hit in the head with a guitar." Zoe cut in.

"Yeah. Lee, why'd you come back here?" Kai asked.

"Well, I hated California, and missed everyone I knew here. I turned 18 last month, which makes me an offical adult, so I was able to move back here on my own," he explained.

"Well we're glad you did. Welcome home." Max said.

"Thank you. I'm glad to be back." Lee said, looking at Zoe with a strange grin on his face.

It looked almost like an...evil grin. But, whatever grin it may be...

Zoe didn't like the awkward feeling she got from it.


	8. Unhappy Ending

**Five Months Later**

Zoe sat on her porch swing on the front porch, resting her head on Rei$'s shoulder as she gazed out into the yard. If it weren't for the roof above the porch, the two of them would be soaked by rain. Zoe watched lightning flash through the darkened clouds above. She loved the summer, especially when it rained like it did now. There was a loud roar of thunder and the rain seemed to get harder. Zoe closed her eyes and listened to the rain pound on the roof; it was a calming sound. Rei was running his hand through her hair, smiling to himself.

"See how much softer your hair gets when you use good conditioner?" he asked.

Zoe punched him in the arm, smiling.

"Shut up." She muttered, the calm sound of the rain making her sleepy for some reason.

Rei laughed and pulled her closer to him, kissing her on your forehead. Life had been so wonderful in the last five months. Zoe had gone from completely miserable to amazingly happy ever since her and Rei got together. He was always there for her, no matter what. He was there to wipe away her tears when she cried, there to smile with her when she was happy, and there to hold her when she just wanted to be around him. But, the biggest thing that Rei had done for her was rid her of her nightmares. It had been months since her last nightmare. Another good thing in her life was that she only had a month of school left, and then she could proudly say that she graduated (and survived) high school. Zoe planned on going to an art college that wasn't too far from where she lived, but that was only after summer break ended.

...And then there was Lee. Hi and Zoe two were like best friends again. Though, he did freak Zoe out a bit...

He always looked at her in a way that made her uncomfortable. He seemed to have really changed in the seven years he was gone. Despite the fact that they were really good friends again, she was sort of scared to be alone with him.

"It's getting pretty late." Rei mumbled into her ear after an hour or so had passed. "I better get home before my parents start to wonder where I am."

Zoe frowned and reopened her eyes.

"Aww...okay then." Zoe sighed.

She stood up, stretching a bit. She had been sitting on the porch swing nearly all day, just watching the thunderstorm in awe. Rei pulled her into a kiss, putting a hand behind her head to deepen it. After a while, he pulled away. Zoe sighed, wishing that he didn't have to leave.

"See you later, sugar," he said with a cute grin on his face.

"Sugar...?" Zoe asked. "Where'd that come from?"

"Dunno, I just thought it suited you so well...since you're so delicate and girlish..."

"Yeah right. Delicate and girlish...I think those two descriptions belong to Kai, he wears the tabk top around here." Zoe laughed.

Rei laughed as well.

"Okay then. I guess I'll talk to you later." Zoe said.

Zoe kissed him softly and waved goodbye before he ran off into the pouring rain, to his dad's truck that was parked in Zoes driveway. She watched as he drove off and sighed, going into the house. It was empty; Chris and her mother weren't there. And, they wouldn't be for about another week. They were on vacation and had left Zoe with the responsibility of being the housekeeper while they were gone. She did love having the house all to herself, but she missed Chris and her mother a lot.

Zoe went upstairs to her room and flopped down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. It was crowded with various band posters and posters of supernatural creatures. Having nothing else to do, Zoe got up and put a random CD into her stereo and listened to music for a while. Right as the final song on the CD ended, she heard a knock from downstairs. Zoe got up and hurried downstairs, to the front door. When she opened it, she saw Lee standing there, soaking wet.

"Lee? Are you alright?" Zoe asked, seeing the odd look in his eyes.

"No...I'm not...alright," his words were slurred and she could tell that he was drunk.

"You're drunk, Lee. You need to-"

"No, just listen." Lee interrupted, taking a step forward. "You weren't suppose to fall in love...with Rei. He doesn't love you anyways."

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Zoe half-shouted, Lee's words starting to anger her.

"You're not his...you're mine..." he snarled, his drunken words starting to hold anger in them.

And before she could say or do anything else, Lee stepped forward and locked his lips with hers. Zoe gasped and pushed him away, Lee's eyes narrowed in pure anger.

As Zoe opened her mouth to yell something at him, though, she heard a soft gasp. Zoe looked behind Lee, outside, and felt her heart stop beating. There stood Rei, looking absolutely shocked and hurt.

"Rei...no...it isn't-"

Rei shook his head and turned around. He started to run off. But, Zoe weren't going to let him leave without hearing what had really happened.

Zoe roughly pushed Lee aside and chased after Rei. He was already quite far ahead of Her, but she caught up with him. The sidewalk was flooded with water from the thunderstorm earlier. Zoe ran up behind Rei and grabbed his arm, spinning him around to face her.

"Just listen to me!" Zoe pleaded.

"Listen to you?! No, fuck you! I refuse to listen to a lying bitch! If you didn't truly love me, then you should've just said so!" Rei shouted.

Tears were streaming from her eyes now, because she felt so very helpless. He wouldn't believe her...

"Rei, I didn't kiss him! He kissed me, God damnit!" Zoe shouted back.

Rei seemed to become less angry, but he still looked sad.

"You were so perfect, Zoe...you were kind, you were funny, but most of all, you were trustworthy. You _were_, that is. It shocks me that you'd be hollow enough to want to hurt me like this. We're done, Zoe. Goodbye."

Zoe didn't chase after Rei as he walked off again; she couldn't get her legs to move.

"Don't go..." Zoe whispered in despair. "I love you..."

But he didn't hear her. He had already disappeared in the distance...

Lee grinned evilly to himself as Zoe pushed past him to chase after Rei. He stared after her, waiting until she was out of his sight, before he spoke.

"It's all clear. The plan was a success," he said.

A shadowy figure walked out from behind the hedges that seperated her front yard from the neighbor's.

"Good. Now we can both have what we want." Emily said with a wide grin. "Rei will be mine again..."

Zoe finally managed to get her legs to move. She had just been standing there for at least two hours, staring blankly at the spot where Rei had just been standing. Zoe had stopped crying, but that didn't mean that she was feeling better. Zoe walked back to her house, finding that Lee was gone. Zoe was happy for that, because she might've hurt him seriously if he had still been there. Zoe slowly trudged into her house, not even bothering to close the door behind her. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, staring emptily at the ground. Zoe were thinking...thinking about something serious. She stood there for a long time, until she looked up at the clock to the side of the room. It was already 5:00 A.M. She took in a deep, shaky breath before she headed upstairs.

Once she got upstairs, she went into the small room that was across from the bathroom. It was Chris's office. He would usually go up there after he got home from work to be alone and unwind. Zoe went over to the small desk to the side of the room and started searching through the drawers. She finally found what she was looking for in the bottom drawer, carefully hidden underneath some papers. Zoe grabbed the completely full bottle of Southern Comfort and held it close to herself, going across the hall to the bathroom. Zoe sat the bottle down on the sink and opened the medicine cabinet, immediately spotting the bottle of sleeping pills. Zoe grabbed it eagerly and opened it. She then stared at the bottle for a moment, contemplating what she was doing, before she brought it up to her mouth and downed half of the pills in the bottle. She then tossed the bottle aside and grabbed the alcohol. Zoe opened it quickly and drank it all, slowly sinking to the ground as she did so, until she was sitting. Zoe looked up at the ceiling, feeling the affect of the pills and alcohol. She suddenly felt angry...angry at everything.

"Why does everything have to always fucking happen to me?!" Zoe screamed, chucking the empty bottle of Southern Comfort at the closed bathroom door. It shattered, glass shards flying out in all directions. A rather large and sharp piece of glass landed right next to her hand. She could feel herself losing consciousness, but she weren't finished yet. Zoe grabbed the piece of glass with her right hand and held her left arm out. Tears began to slip silently from her eyes as she carved words into the flesh on her inner-arm. Once she had finished, she collapsed forward and immediately fell into darkness...

**Kai's P.O.V**

I was worried...really worried. Rei had told all of us about Zoe and him breaking up when he got to school this morning. He never told us the reason why, though. That wasn't what worried me. What worried me was that Zoe didn't show up to school. She wasn't even late, like she usually is. I could just feel that something was wrong. And Lee was acting really odd. He was avoiding us all. What the hell was going on?

I was really eager to get out of 4th period and get to lunch. Well, I wasn't _going_ to lunch, but I just needed to get out. When the bell rang, I sprang to my feet and hurried out the door. I ran outside and pulled out my cell phone, dialing Zoe's number. I waited for her to answer, but she never did. I was really fucking worried now. I put my cell phone away and started running towards the school parking lot. I got into my car and started it up, driving off down the street. My worry only increased when I got to Zoe's house.

Her front door was wide open. Shit...God no...let her be alright. I got out of my car and ran faster than I ever have before towards her house. I ran inside, calling her name.

I never got a response.

After searching all the downstairs rooms, I rushed upstairs and started looking in all of the rooms up there. When I threw open the bathroom door, my heart froze with fear. There she lay, completely motionless, on her stomach. The ground was littered with pieced of broken glass and I saw an open bottle of sleeping pills in the corner. But the thing that scared me the most was the pool of blood that had formed under her left arm. I rushed over to her and knelt down, lifting her up from the ground. She was a hell of a lot paler than usual. I gently grabbed her left arm and saw what had caused the blood...

The name "Rei" had been carved deeply into her skin. The wound was somewhat fresh. It was still bleeding a bit, but the blood around it was already drying up. How long had she been here like this?! Fuck it. I had no time to think. I picked Zoe up bridal-style and hurried downstairs. When I got outside, I ran to my car and gently laid her down in the backseat. I then got into the driver's seat and sped off down the road. I had to get her to the hospital...

...But what if it was too late...?

**Gerard's P.O.V**

I stood outside during lunch, not wanting to be anywhere near my friends right now. No one knew how badly Zoe had hurt me. She didn't expect me to come back...perhaps I shouldn't have. But, I had no choice. The fucking tires on my dad's truck blew out only a couple of blocks away from Zoe's house. Who the fuck leaves barbwire in the middle of the God forsaken road, anyways?! I wasn't too far from Zoe's house, and my cell phone was dead, so I decided to walk back and see if I could use her phone. What a wonder-fucking-ful surprise I found when I got back to her house. Lee...that fucker. Why did he have to come back and ruin my life...?

I was snapped out of my thoughts when Tyson burst through the school's double doors. A look of pure horror was on his face, his cell phone clutched tightly in his hand as he looked at me.

"Tyson...? What's wrong?" I asked,He was sort of scaring me.

"Rei...Kai just called me from the hospital..." Tyson started to speak, his voice really shaky.

Shit. What could've possibly happened to Kai$?!

"Is he okay?!"

"Kai is fine, Rei. He's only there because of Zoe."

**Normal P.O.V**

Zoes eyes slowly fluttered open, bright light filling them. She shut them quickly and waited a moment before opening them again. She found herself staring up at a white ceiling and could hear a soft beeping sound to her side. At first she had no idea where she was, but then a wave of pain shot through her, bringing back the memories of what she had done.

Zoe clenched her teeth and shut her eyes tightly, a searing pain in her arm and head. Zoe only opened her eyes again when the pain dulled. She brought her left arm up so that she could look at it. It was wrapped up in a red-stained white bandage. Zoe hated how tight the bandage was, so she ripped it right off. Zoe felt tears sting her eyes as she gazed at the name she had cut into her arm.

"Rei..." you muttered softly.

The wound was no longer bleeding. Zoe could see how deep it was, knowing that it was going to leave a permanent scar once it healed.

"Zoe...?"

Zoe put her arm back down to her side and looked at the doorway to the room she was in. Kai stood there, looking both relieved and confused.

"God, Zoe...why in the fuck did you do all of this to yourself?!" he asked, hurrying over to her.

Zoe felt the tears that had been forming in her eyes release.

"He wouldn't believe me, Kai..." Zoe whispered hoarsely. "I didn't kiss Lee...that fucker was drunk...he kissed me. I would never want to hurt him...I loved him, you know that..."

Kai frowned.

"Zoe...can you just tell me what happened?"

Zoe didn't hesitate when Kai asked. She told him about everything that had happened. And then she told him exactly what she did. Kai looked shocked once she finished explaining, but had no time to say anything to her. A nurse came in and, upon seeing her awake, shooed Kai out of the room. Once Kai had left, the nurse looked down at her.

"You're a very lucky one," she said. "If that kind boy hadn't of gotten you here as quickly as he had, you would've died."

Zoe closed her eyes and nodded.

'_But what if that was what I wanted to happen...?_"


	9. The Prom Plan!

**Rei's P.O.V**

I raced down the blinding white hallways of the hospital. Tyson was trailing behind me as I looked around frantically for Kai. Even if I did hate Zoe for what she did...I just couldn't act like I didn't give a damn that she was in the hospital, because I did. After getting yelled at by many doctors and nurses for running, I finally spotted Kai sitting in the waiting room. I hurried over to him.

"Kai! Is she okay?" I asked, breathing hard from running so much.

Kai looked at me coldly. If looks could kill, I would've died right then and there...

"Why in the fuck would you care?" he asked slowly.

I narrowed my eyes at Kai. His attitude was starting to piss me off.

"Just tell me whether Zoe is fucking okay or not." I demanded.

"Yeah, she's just fine physically. I wish I could say the same for her emotional state." Kai replied bitterly.

"What's your fucking problem?" I shouted.

"My fucking problem is that Zoe almost killed herself because you wouldn't fucking listen to her!" Kai shouted back.

I noticed that a lot of people were staring at us, but I didn't care.

"It's not my fault, asshole! If she wouldn't of had to cheat on me like that, then none of this would've happened!"

"You claimed that you loved her." Kai said, though his words were a lot softer and kinder now. "But you couldn't have possibly loved her, Rei. Love is about trust...and you didn't trust her when she said that she wasn't cheating on you. Perhaps you'd like to go and see what she carved into her fucking arm. I may have been bought up by cold hearted bastards but you guys changed that in me. Now i am not afraid of expressing myself so go on you just see whats in her arm...forever!!"

I looked at Kai in confusion. He pointed down the hallway, to room number 45.

"Go look," he said coolly.

I turned away from Kai and walked towards room 45. I slowly opened the door, finding the room empty, save for the sleeping girl on the notorious white hospital bed at the back of the room...

**Normal P.O.V**

Rei was stricken with fear when he saw her. She was just sleeping, for she had been tired from the past hour of being tested and bothered by nurses and doctors. Rei slowly walked over to her, kneeling down beside the bed. He didn't know what Kai meant about Zoe carving something into her arm. He looked at her right arm, seeing nothing there. But, when he looked at her left arm, he felt shocked.

"Rei...?" she mumbled, though she were still fast asleep.

Rei shook his head. He stood quickly and turned to walk out of the room. But, he was stopped. He felt her cold hand grasp his. Rei slowly looked back at her. She was still asleep, but looked as if she were having a nightmare. Her facial expression was one of fear and sadness. Rei frowned and gently pulled her hand from his. He sighed deeply and walked out of the room, not even bothering to find Tyson as he left the hospital. He didn't even hear what she said before he left.

"I love you..."

Rei soon found that he didn't have the keys to his car. He remembered that Tyson had them. He growled to himself as he started down the sidewalk. The haunting image of his name carved into her delicate, pale arm still lingered in his mind.

"Why would she do something like that...?" he asked himself.

Just as Rei started to get lost in thought, he was snapped out of it. A black car had been following him slowly down the road. Rei sighed heavily, knowing immediately whose car it was.

"What do you want Emily?" he asked tiredly.

Rei stopped walking and looked through the open window on the passenger's side of the car, seeing Emily in the driver's seat. She looked sad and...sorry?

"Rei...I heard what happened to Zoe. I'm so sorry. I was coming to see her. Is she okay?" Emily asked, sounding very sad.

"Yeah...she's fine." Rei mumbled.

"Where are you going? You never usually leave Zoe's side. I always assumed that if something like this would happen, you wouldn't leave her side at all." Emily said.

"Zoe and I aren't together anymore." Rei said, though it pained him to speak the words.

Emily looked absolutely shocked.

"Whoa...are you serious? I was more than sure that the two of you would be together for a hell of a long time," she said, nodding her head.

"Yeah, well...we lasted five months. Good enough." Rei sighed and started to walk off, but Emily followed with her car.

Rei noticed this just as it started to pour down rain. He cursed under his breath.

"Rei, come on. I'll give you a ride to wherever you need to go. I can't just let you walk in the rain." Emily offered.

Rei sighed and looked down, thinking for a moment. He finally walked over to Emily's car and got in, saying nothing to Emily at all.

She grinned, though Rei didn't notice.

'_This plan is working out better than I could have ever expected..._'

Kai and Tyson stayed with Zoe at the hospital all day. They cheered her up, trying to take her mind off of everything. She was happy to have her two best friends with her to comfort her...something that Rei had always done before. Right when the two were about to leave, a doctor came in and informed Zoe that she was okay and that she could leave as well. He also said that he had contacted her parents and that they were on their way home from Hawaii right now.

"Great..." Zoe sighed, walking out of her hospital room with Kai and Tyson. "Chris and mom are gonna fucking spaz out...especially when they see this."

Zoe held up her left arm, which was bandaged up again. Zoe cringed at the thought of how badly the two were going to freak out.

"Well, don't worry about it." Kai said, he and Tyson having to help her walk a bit, since she was still pretty weak.

Zoe sighed, suddenly not wanting to go home. It was amazing...she was right back to where she started from...depressed. And, what was even more amazing was that it was Rei who was making her depressed.

"I guess Rei just walked home..." Tyson mumbled, finally realizing that he was missing.

Zoe hated hearing that name. It brought tears to her eyes and broke her heart even more than it already was. And Zoe knew that she'd have to see that name every day for the rest of her life, because it was scarred on her arm permanently...it was scarred on her heart permanently, too. Tyson was already in his car, driving off towards his house as she got into Kai's car. She sat there silently, staring out of the car door window, into the night. Kai finally got in after a moment or two, starting the car up without saying a word to her. The whole drive to her house was quiet; she didn't feel like talking, anyways. As soon as Kai pulled into her driveway, she got out of the car and hurried up to her house.

"Zoe..." Kai sighed, following her. "You can't live your life like this. You can't try to kill yourself over someone like him!"

"You're right..." Zoe mumbled, stopping right at her front door. "But there's nothing I can do to hold my fucking feelings back, Kai i am not you. I'm sorry. Just leave me alone..."

And with that, she opened the front door and went inside. Kai sighed heavily and trudged back over to his car. He knew he had to do something to make Zoe feel better. He thought about what he could do as he drove down the street. He had just parked his car in front of his house when an idea hit him. He grinned to himself and hurried inside his house. His parents weren't home, but he didn't care right now. He ran to the phone, ignoring Rei and dialed Max's number.

"Hello?" the voice of Mr. Tate was heard on the other line.

"Oh, hi Mr. Tate Is Max home?" Kai asked.

"Yeah, he just walked through the door. Hold on..." Mr. Tate said.

"What is it, Hiwatari?" Max's voice was heard.

"Max, I know what we can do to set things right with Zoe and Rei." Kai said quickly.

"...You have my attention."

"Okay then...here's the plan..."

Two weeks passed by slowly, yet surely. School was ending in one week. Zoes parents never let her leave their sight once they arrived home. It didn't really matter. She was always in her room, staring emptily up at the ceiling, wishing that a hole would just open up in the floor and swallow her whole. In the past two weeks, Zoe also hadn't said a thing to Rei. And, now, when she walked down the halls at school, she could hear people talking about her. It didn't matter to her...none of it did.

Zoe was currently in her room, lying on her stomach on her bed. She could hear the phone ringing from downstairs, before someone answered it. Then she heard someone come up stairs and her bedroom door creak open.

"Zoe, it's for you." Her mother informed softly, handing her the cordless phone.

She sighed softly and took it.

"What do you want?"

"Yeah, hello to you too, Zoe." It was Kai. "Listen, I just called to ask you something."

"I'm listening." Zoe told him, lying back down.

"You know how the senior prom is coming up, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I know that the prep prom is coming up." She replied dully.

"Well, I think you need to get out of the house. Come with me to it." Kai offered.

"Thanks for the kind gesture, Kai, but I don't go to dances." Zoe brushed the offer away.

"Oh, come on! Are you just going to stay in that room until you rot away? Please, just come with me. I don't care if you don't dance at all, I just want you to get out of the house." Kai pleaded. "And f anyone asks i never begged"

"Sorry, I-"

"Rei and Emily are going, you know." Kai interrupted. His words made tears come to her eyes, but what he said next made them fall. "From what Kenny told me, they're back together again. Why, I don't know. Will you please just come with me?"

Zoe was silent for a long time. Kai was starting to wonder if she was even there anymore. He was about to ask, when she spoke.

"Okay...I'll go..."

-----------------------------------------------

Kai let out a sigh of relief as he hung the phone up.

"Okay, Tyson, Max, Kenny. Part one of the plan if complete. It's up to you guys to get Rei to go, now," he said to Mainly to Kenny (the sensible one), who was getting up.

"Okay."

Kenny walked over to the phone, picked it up, and dialed his home number.

"Eh...hello...?" the tired voice of Rei was heard on the other line.

"Rei? Listen. I've got to ask you som-"

"Damnit, Kenny have you seen Kai. Where the hell is he ? Mom and dad are freakin' out over here. He needs to get home." Rei interrupted.

"Yeah, He will be home later. Were at Max's. But, for now, just listen to me. I want to know if you're going to the senoir prom. It's next Friday, you know."

"What...? Er, yeah...I am, actually. With Emily." Rei responded.

This took Kenny off guard, but he kept his composure.

"Okay. I was just wondering. Kai said that he and Zoe are going together." Kenny said.

Rei was silent 'Well the bastard didn't tell me!', before speaking in a cold tone, "That's wonderful for Kai. Okay, I'm going now. Just tell him to get home before he worry's mom and dad to death." !!

Right after he had spoke, Rei hung up the phone. Kenny sighed softly and hung up as well.

"Well...?" Kai asked.

"You weren't lying about him and Emily going together. They actually are. OH and you gotta go hom your parents are freaking out!"

"No...don't make me go in there...NOOOO!" Zoe whined, Kai, Kenny, Max, and Tyson all dragging her into some preppy dress shop at the mall. How they even managed to get her out of her room to go to the mall, she did't know. But, she was actually having a good time for the first time in two weeks.

"Oh, stop your whining! Lookie! Here's the perfect dress for you." Kai laughed, holding a pink, sparkly dress out in front of her.

"Fuck that," Zoe sighed. "Can't I just wear a tuxedo or something...?"

"Eh...no."

"Why the hell did I even agree to go?" Zoe muttered under her breath.

"Wait! Here it is! This is perfect for you, Zoe." Max suddenly shouted out.

Zoe looked over to where he was standing, actually smiling to see that he was being serious. Max was holding out a black, strapless dress. It was sort of feathery at the top, and at the bottom there was red layered underneath the black. It was a beautiful dress. (Don't understand my description? Just think of the dress Helena wears in the Helena music video by my chemical romance.)

Zoe walked over to Max and took the dress from him, examining it a bit closer.

"Yeah, I like it. Let's just pay for it and leave-"

"Not so fast! Go try it on to make sure it fits!" Tyson said, grinning.

Zoe narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm sure it fits. Let's just go."

"Oh, come on! Just try it on." Kenny pleaded.

Zoe sighed, knowing that she wasn't going to be able to leave without trying it on. Zoe took the dress into a dressing room at the back of the store and put it on. Zoe looked into a mirror that was at the side of the little booth she was in. And, much to her surprise, she liked how she looked. There was a knock on the dressing room door.

"Let us seeeeee!" came Kai's wailing voice.

Zoe sighed and opened the door. All four of her friends' faces held an expression of awe.

"Whoa..." Kai muttered.

"Yeah, it fits just fine." Zoe said, shutting the door again.

As Zoe was changing back into her regular clothes, she caught a glimpse of the scar on her left arm in the mirror. Zoe stopped what she was doing and turned to fully face the mirror. The self-made scar was a constant reminder of who it was Zoe truly was and who it was that broke her heart. Zoe ran her fingers over to scar, willing it to just disappear. When Zoe realized it would never disappear, she sighed heavily and changed back into her regular clothes. She exited the dressing room with her dress in hand. She paid for it and then left the store as quickly as she could.

"And don't forget, senoirs," the voice over the intercom rambled on. "Your prom will be held at the downtown ballroom tonight. It will begin at 6:00 P.M and end at 12:00 A.M. We would also like to remind you senoirs that Monday afternoon in the Graduation party. That is all the announcements for today, students. Have a great last day of school."

Half of the senoirs weren't even at school today, since it was the last day. Zoe decided that she was going to leave school when the lunch bell rang. She was currently in her fourth period, which was art. There were only about ten students there today, including her. She waited impatiently for the bell to ring and when it did, she was the first one out the door. Zoe hurried down the hallways, not paying attention to where she was heading. Then, she ran into something and stumbled back, though she didn't fall.

"Must we always meet like this?"

Zoe felt rage build up inside of her as soon as she heard Lee's voice. She roughly pushed past him and left the school building. But, he followed her.

"Zoe...I'm so sorry for what happened before! I was drunk...I didn't know what I was doing!" Lee explained.

"That's fucking good for you." Zoe growled, almost running down the sidewalk.

"Zoe...well, before you run off, just let me ask you to go to the prom with me!"

"Sorry, I'm already going with someone." Zoe said, running off as quickly as she could, leaving Lee behind.


	10. Reunion

Zoe and Kai sat in silence as he drove down the downtown streets, the ballroom building just up ahead. Zoe was really contemplating asking Kai to take her back home, because she didn't think she'd be able to look at Rei and Emily together without crying. But, for some reason, she didn't. She sighed heavily as Kai pulled into the crowded parking lot and parked his car. He got out quickly and opened her door, helping her out.

"You're scaring me, Kai." Zoe said. "You're acting like a...gentleman..."

Kai glared at you, his infamous glare.

"I'm always a gentleman!" he insisted.

"Let's just go inside so that I can go into my dark corner and watch everyone have fun."

The two of them walked into the building, gasping in awe when they saw how huge the ballroom itself was. There was a long table set up in the back of the room, food and punch being served on it. There was also what looked to be a stage at the very front of the ballroom. There was a microphone stand on the stage. Other than tons of people crowding the room, dancing to whatever music was playing, the ballroom was pretty much empty.

"Have a wonderful time." Zoe said to Kai, before walking off to a corner of the huge room.

"Come on Zoe i am the moody one in our gang and we all know it." Kai said trying to sway her into some fun

Zoe smiled a little and headed over to the corner she stood there for a long while with her arms crossed, watching everyone dance. She spotted Frank dancing with some random girl and Tyson, Max, and Kenny all hanging around the food table. Zoe felt a little sick to her stomach now, realizing that Rei and Emily were probably there. She looked down at the ground. She honestly didn't feel like having her feelings stabbed at again...

"I'm tired of dancing, Emily. I'm just going to rest over here for a little while."

Zoe felt her heartbeat increase as the beautiful sound of Rei's voice met her ears. He didn't look up from the floor, but she knew that he was standing somewhere close to her. After a while, she snuck a glance to her side, seeing Rei leaning against the wall about three feet away from yher. He was looking into the crowd of dancing people, but seemed to feel her eyes on him. He look over at her, and her eyes locked for a split second, before she looked back down at the ground. Zoe knew he was still looking at her, though...and she decided to say something while she had the chance...

"I'm sorry...for hurting you. Even if it wasn't my fault for what happened...I'm sorry..." Zoe whispered, hoping that he heard her.

When she received no reply, she assumed he didn't hear her. But, she heard a soft sigh.

"I need to talk to you outside," he whispered back.

Rei grabbed her hand and guided her out the back door. It led them to a garden-like area. her heart was beating harder and faster than it ever had before. It was the first contact she had had with Rei since the break up. Rei let go of her hand and turned to face her. She got her first good look at him, smiling to herself. He looked better than he ever had before, dressed in a black suit with a white and black horizontally striped tie around his neck. His ebony hair was like it always was;tied back, but still beautiful.

"Why?" he asked her softly, grabbing her left arm and turning it over to reveal the scar.

Zoe pulled her arm away from him and looked down at the ground once again.

"It's none of your business..."

"The hell it isn't."

"Just leave me the fuck alone, okay?! You caused this..." Zoe shouted, not meaning to, though.

Rei looked shocked. He stared at Zoe for a moment, before speaking.

"_I_ caused this?"

"Yes, you did. You wouldn't believe me when I told you the fucking truth!" Zoe said, holding back a wave of tears that she felt coming on.

"Zoe..." Rei sighed, looking apologetic now.

"Without trust there can't be love...so you not trusting me only proved that you never loved me." Zoe whispered, it becoming harder and harder to hold back the tears.

"Don't you fucking say that!" Rei shouted. "How the hell would you have reacted if you saw me kissing someone?!"

"I would've at least given you time to explain yourself!" Zoe screamed back at him.

Rei didn't respond. He just stared at Zoe with empty eyes.

"I love you so much that it kills me..." he muttered.

"Then why aren't you dead?" Zoe asked somewhat bitterly.

Rei ignored her snide comment and took a step forward, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Why...did I ever let you go...?" he asked no one in particular, before his lips collided with hers.

His action took Zoe off guard, so she ended up jumping back, away from him. Zoe closed her eyes tightly and shook her head, running back into the building, leaving Rei where he stood.

After a long while he sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, before he started walking back inside as well.

Zoe searched for Kai inside, hoping to find him and get him to take her home. But, he seemed to have just disappeared. Zoe sighed in frustration and went back to her corner, feeling sadder than she had in a long time. Why had she ran away from Rei like that...? Maybe it was because she didn't want someone fucking with her emotions anymore.

...But what if Rei was actually serious...?

Zoe snapped out of her thoughts just as the lights in the room dimmed down and the song changed to a very slow one. She assumed that it was the last song of the night, since the huge clock on the wall beside her said that it was nearly midnight. When she looked away from the clock, her Shimmering eyes met with Rei's golden ones.

"I honestly don't feel like getting broken again," Zoe said coolly. "So just go away."

"I refuse to leave you again. I've made that mistake once already." Rei said firmly. "Listen...I'm sorry, okay? I should've trusted you..."

"You didn't though, and that's the problem."

"Zoe, just let me speak. And, if after I'm done, you still don't care for me, then I will leave you alone." Rei said. Zoe sighed and gestured for him to continue. "I wasn't thinking clearly that night. So, when I saw you and Lee, I freaked out. I couldn't believe it. I just loved you so much that it killed me inside to see what I saw."

Zoe were silent after he stopped speaking and were looking down at the ground. She looked back up at him, a weak smile on her face and tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

"...You never know what you have until you've lost it..." Zoe whispered.

"Exactly. It took me up until just a moment ago to realize that by not trusting you, I had lost the one person I had ever truly loved." Rei whispered back.

Zoe didn't give her next action a second thought. She threw her arms around Rei and buried her face into his chest, crying silently. She felt him wrap his arms around her. A true smile spread across her lips for the first time in so long and she felt happiness once again. She were back in the one place she loved...in Rei's arms.

"I fucking love you..." Zoe muttered after she had finished crying her joyful tears.

"I fucking love you, too." Rei replied, smiling.

After the two of them pulled away from the other, the dimmed lights came back on.

"You fucking whore..."

Zoe looked over to see Emily, who looked beyond pissed off. Her hands were balled into tight fists.

"Look who's talking." Zoe shot back, eyes flashing with hate for her.

The response Zoe received from Emily was not a verbal one. She hit her right in the jaw with enough force to turn Zoes head to the side. Everyone in the ballroom gasped. Silence engulfed the room as everyone watched to see what Zoe would do. For a long time yshe did nothing. She didn't even move. But, after a couple of minutes of complete silence, she spat some blood out of her mouth. She slowly turned her head to look back at Emily, blood dripping from her bottom lip.

"Nice hit." Zoe said, breaking the silence. "But I can hit harder."

Before Emily could react, Zoe had knocked her to the ground with one swift, hard punch. She lay there, motionless. Zoe took a step forward, kneeling down beside Emily.

"I swear to God...if you ever lay a hand on me again...if you ever mess with me, my friends, or anyone I love...I will rip your fucking throat out." Zoe said coldly, before standing up again.

Then, while everyone was still frozen with shock, she left the building. She walked across the parking lot, to Kai's car, and got into the backseat to wait for him. Zoe had been sitting there for a while, when someone else got into the backseat. Rei looked at her, grinning for some odd reason.

"What?" Zoe asked.

"That, back there, fucking rocked," he said simply.

Zoe grinned as well, lip still bleeding.

"That bitch had it coming to her. She ruined my life twice."

"Your lip is bleeding." Rei pointed out to her.

Zoe sighed and nodded her head, "I know."

Rei smiled a bit before he softly touched his lips to hers. Her bottom lip stung a bit, but she forgot about it as the kiss deepened. Rei and Zoe pulled away after a while, Zoe laughing a bit.

"I've missed doing that so much." Zoe said, grinning.

"Yup." Rei agreed.

Then, he suddenly lunged forward and locked his lips with hers again. His tongue slid along her bottom lip, which made Zoe jump back because it stung.

"Ah! You jackass!" Zoe whined.

Then, she decided to ask Rei a question. It was a question about something that had really been bugging her.

"Why did you start going back out with Emily?"

"What?!" Rei exlcaimed, looking shocked. "I wasn't going out with Emily. In fact, the only reason I showed up to the dance with her was because she offered to give Max and me a ride."

"But Kai said...I'm gonna kill that liar." Zoe sighed.

And, as if on queue, Kai opened the car door and sat in the driver's seat.

"I was worried when I started walking up to the car," he said, grinning in his perverted way. "I was gonna run off screaming if the windows were all fogged up."

Zoe kicked the back of his seat, eyes narrowed.

"Just take me home before I'm forced to murder you and hide your body in my basement."

"Okay then, sheesh." Kai sighed.

Rei started to get out of the car.

"Wait a minute. Let me go get the others."

"Hey! What do I look like? A taxi driver?" Kai complained.

"Yeah, you do." Zoe laughed.

So, after a while, Rei and the others came back. Max sat in the front seat, while all the others squeezed in the back. Zoe got home rather quickly, which saddened her because she wanted to be with Rei for a while longer.

"I'll walk you up to the front door, just to make sure nothing jumps from the shadows and attacks you." Rei said, smiling as the two of them got out of the car.

The front porch light was on above the front door. Zoe stood in front of the door when they got up to the porch, really wishing that Rei and her didn't have to part.

"Your lip is covered in blood, Zoe." Rei said, sounding a bit worried.

"Don't worry, I'll be fi-"

"No, you won't. Here, I'll go inside and help you clean it up." Rei said, jogging back over to the car real quick to tell the others to just go ahead and go home.

He came back and the two of them crept into the dark, silent house. Zoe was thankful that her parents were asleep. She led Rei upstairs to the bathroom, where he told her to sit on the counter. She did so as he fumbled through the medicine cabinet, finding the items he needed. Then, he tended to the deep cut on her bottom lip. After a while, he finished and Zoe jumped down from the counter. She was feeling really tired now.

"Thanks, Rei." She said as he helped her walk to her room.

Zoe felt as though she could just fall to the ground and fall asleep.

"Hey, no problem." Rei smiled.

Zoe flopped down on her bed, not even bothering to change into pajamas.

"I guess I'm gonna start walking home now." Rei said.

"That's pointless," Zoe mumbled tiredly. "Just stay here with me for the night."

Rei smiled and nodded. He crawled over Zoe to the other side of the bed and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close.

"Goodnight Rei..." Zoe whispered, falling asleep just as he replied.

"Goodnight, Zoe..."

"Zoe? Zoeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?"

Zoe woke to the muffled sound of someone calling her name. She saw that it wasn't Rei, for he was currently curled up at the other side of the bed, fast asleep. Then, suddenly, her bedroom door swung open and in marched Chris, who was grinning happily. He stopped short upon seeing Zoe and Rei. Zoe groaned silently, knowing that he was going to get the wrong idea about the two of them. Chris stared in silence for a moment, before slowing backing out of the room. Zoe heard him going down the creaky stairs, before all fell quiet once again. Zoe sighed and crept out of her bed, deciding to go downstairs and explain some things before Chris totally freaked out. She hurried downstairs, into the kitchen, finding Chris at the table, staring blankly in front of him.

"Stop acting so dramatic." Zoe sighed

"I'm not going to say...a thing..." Chris muttered.

"You just did." Zoe informed. "Now, about me and Rei. Nothing happened, so get that dirty thought out of your head right now. There was a little...incident...at the prom, and my lip got busted pretty bad. He came in and helped me clean it up, and then he just stayed the night because it was pointless for him to go home."

Chris didn't say a thing for a while, but then he grinned and nodded his head.

"Yeah, I know. I was just giving you a hard time. I was awake when you two came in and sort of...spied on you."

Zoe narrowed her eyes and hit chris on the arm.

"Hey! I was just making sure nothing would happen," he laughed.

"Yeah...whatever." Zoe said, smiling

Then, she headed back upstairs. When she walked into her room, she saw that Rei was still asleep.

She gathered some clean clothes and went into the bathroom to change real quick. When coming out of the bathroom, she saw Rei stumble out from her room, looking drowsy.

"Hey, good morning..." he yawned when he saw her.

"Good morning."

"Do your parents know I'm here?" he asked, looking around.

"Yeah, Chris does. Mom doesn't, but she's at work, anyways." Zoe explained

"Okay then. I really need to get home. God...mom and dad are probably losing their minds right now..." Rei sighed, giving Zoe a soft, short kiss before going downstairs.

"Bye, Rei" She heard Chris say form the kitchen

"Bye, Mr. Kennder (Chris's last name isn't the same as Zoe's because she still have her real father's last name. Just thought I'd point that out. )." Rei replied, before jogging out the front door.

Zoe sighed and went back into her room, having nothing else to do. It was really hot in there, so she opened the window up to let in some fresh, cool air. Zoe then went over to Raven's cage, the crow actually awake for once. Zoe opened the cage and took her out, though she was acting rather strange. Raven was acting paranoid...jumpy, even. Then, there was a loud thud from downstairs. This seemed to set Raven off. She cawed loudly and went wild, flapping her wings in a crazed manner. Zoe tried calming the bird down, but she just wouldn't. Raven then took flight, darting out the open window. Zoe gased and ran over to the window, gazing out as her pet of many years flew away into the distance.

"Raven! No! Come back!" Zoe shouted after her, but the crow never returned.

Zoe frowned and ran downstairs. Chris was in the living room watching a movie.

"Chris, Raven just flew out the window!" She said.

"What...? Well...there's really nothing I can do. Trying to find her out there would be like trying to find you in a crowd of cats." Chris joked, trying to make her feel even a little better.

It sort of helped. She weren't a child anymore, so she weren't going to cry or get depressed because her pet had run...er...flown away. But, it still made her sad. Raven had been her pet for many years.

"That's not funny..." Zoe sighed.

"Don't worry. Raven is like a dog, in my opinion. She'll come back. Why? Because we feed her." Chris said with a smile on his face.

Zoe nodded slowly and sighed once again. Chris gave her a hug, still smiling.

"I know what you can do to cheer yourself up!" he announced happily.

"What?" Zoe asked, smiling weakly.

"Go call Rei." Chris laughed.

"That's not a bad idea..." Zoe grinned. "Thanks!"

Zoe then grabbed the phone and went back upstairs to her room.

She had been talking to Rei for about an hour. He really made her feel better about Raven flying away and everything. The two of them were currenly arguing about some random topic, since both were bored and had nothing better to do.

"No, I have to disagree, Mr. Kon." Zoe said all proper-like. "I think all humanity will be destroyed by evil man-eating robots."

Rei laughed.

"Please remind me why we even started this ridiculous conversation?"

"We were bored." Zoe answered.

"Oh yeah. I remember now-"

Rei stopped talking, and Zoe could hear two people arguing loudly in the background. Rei sighed.

"Hey, I'll talk to you later, okay? Max came over, and now he and Kai are wrestling and arguing over the remote control."

"Okay then. See ya, Skipper.

"...Skipper?!"

"Yeah. Remember when we were kids and I always use to screw up your name and say Gary instead of Gerard? so i just startrted to call you Skipper? Well, I've decided that Skipper is your new nickname." Zoe explained

"Okay then...talk to you later, sugar." Rei laughed, before he hung up.

Zoe smiled and hung up as well. But, just as she did so, the phone rang. Zoe answered it quickly.

"Hello?"

"Zoe...?" Lee's voice was heard on the other line, though it was really shaky.

"...What the hell do you want?" Zoe asked coldly.

"I need to talk to you right fucking now. I have a serious problem..._very_ fucking serious."

THERE IT IS sorry it took a while i have the flu i feel like there is a piano on my chest its horrible i can't breath al that well. so yeah sorry :D xxxxxx Dallas


	11. Propasal

Lee's voice was more serious than it had ever been before. Zoe sighed softly and decided to just listen to him.

"What is so fucking serious?" Zoe asked.

Lee didn't reply at first. All Zoe heard was his heavy, shaky breathing.

"Zoe...I killed someone..." he answered after a long while.

"Stop your ridiculous jokes." Zoe shouted.

"I'm not fucking joking! I had heard about that girl who you had gotten into a fight with earlier in the year. And I-"

"Are you talking about Katie Smith?" Zoe interrupted.

"Yes, whatever that slut's name was. A bunch of people were talking about how she had said she was going to do something bad to you at Graduation on Monday." Lee began to explain. "After the prom, she had no ride...so I gave her one. I...I took her to the lake and stabbed her...and then I dumped her body in the lake..."

Zoe couldn't speak. Her eyes were wide and Her heart didn't feel like it was beating.

"You can't be serious..." Zoe finally mumbled after a while.

"Zoe, I need you to come to the park. Forget about the bad mistake I made earlier. I need you to be here for me...as a friend." Lee said, sounding like he was crying.

And then Zoe knew he was serious.

"No...no way. I can't get into that kind of shit."Zoe said.

"Please, Zoe. I just need you to find me somewhere to hide! God, I'm so fucking scared right now." Lee cried.

Zoe sat in silence, thinking harder than she had in a long time.

"If you don't come, Zoe..." Lee started to speak again, though his voice had a more evil tone now. "...I will fucking kill Rei..."

Her eyes widened and she suddenly felt anger well up inside of her. Zoe couldn't deny his offer now...he was threatening Rei.

"Fuck you, asshole!" Zoe screamed into the phone before hanging it up and throwing it against the wall.

Zoe watched as the broken pieces crumbled to the floor, before jumping to her feet and rushing downstairs. Chris watched in confusion as she ran out the front door.

**One Year Later...**

The memory of that night still haunted Zoe. After breaking the phone and leaving her house, she ran to Rei's. She was so relieved to see that he was alright, though she never told him about Lee's threat. The day right after that, Zoe saw the most horrifying headline in the newspaper..."18-year-old Girl Found Dead in Highfield Lake (I suck at names...so I just used the name of a real lake where I live. )"

Even thinking back to it sent chills down Her spine. But, she hadn't seen or spoken to Lee in a year. Zoe planned to keep it that way.

"Kai, I don't think you're allowed to swim in the lake...never mind..." Zoe's mother sighed.

Zoe and her parents, Rei and Kai and their parents, Tyson and his parents, Max and his parents, and Kenny and his parents were all having a huge barbacue celebration thing at the lake. It was a congratulation to all of them for completing their first year of college.

"If you start drowning, don't expect me to jump in and save you." Mr. Kon joked.

"That water if fucking cold!" Kai informed, getting out of the water.

His clothes were dripping wet. Zoe laughed, sitting with Rei by the edge of the lake.

"Oh, it can't be that cold." Zoe sighed, seeing that Kai was shivering violently.

Zoe was sitting in front of Rei, leaning back against his chest.

"Why don't you see for yourself." Rei said, grinning, before pushing her forward...right into the freezing cold water.

Zoe surfaced with a beyond-pissed-off look on her face. But, it quickly disappeared and was replaced with a fake smile.

"You asshole. That wasn't funny! Now come and help me out of the water."

Rei laughed and stood. He offered her his hand, which she took. Then, she pulled back as hard as she could, bringing him into the water with her.

"Woo! WATER PARTY!" Max shouted.

He dove back into the water, followed by Kai and Tyson. Kenny decided to be smart and stay dry, so he didn't go in.

"Now that _was_ funny." Zoe laughed as Rei glared at her.

"Kids these days...stupid enough to jump into cold water." Mrs. Granger sighed.

Zoe splashed some water at Rei. He grinned evilly at her before going under the murky water. Zoe tried to see what he was doing, but couldn't see underwater. Then, something grabbed her foot and pulled her under. Zoe closed her eyes tight once she was underwater, but opened them after a while. The water stung her eyes just a bit, and she could barely see. But, she could make out Rei's blurry figure before her. He moved closer to her and kissed her, which felt a little weird underwater. The two of them pulled apart and surfaced after only a couple of seconds.

"They were making out underwater!" Max shouted, sounding horrified.

"How would you like to die underwater?" Zoe asked.

"...I wouldn't." Max replied.

"Then don't speak."

The five of them played around in the water for a while longer, before Zoe's parents commanded her to get out and come to eat. All of them were soaking wet and cold. Zoe ate quickly and then decided to go sit by the lake again. It was getting late. The sun was starting to fall below the horizon and the sky was starting to lose its bright color.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Rei asked, taking a seat beside Zoe.

"Yeah..." Zoe said with a smile on her face.

"I remember we use to sit around watching the sunset all the time when we were kids."

"Yeah...I miss the old days. I really miss being a kid. And, you know, I even think I really miss being in high school." Zoe sighed.

"So do I, but we can't dwell on the past." Rei started to speak, his voice sounding serious suddenly. "We've got to think about the future..." he looked at Zoe, her eyes meeting. "...which is why I need to ask you the most important question I will ever ask."

Her heart skipped a beat. Rei's voice was so serious...she were starting to get nervous.

"What's your question?" Zoe asked, trying to stop her voice from shaking.

Rei didn't reply to her immediately. But, when he did, his voice was even more serious.

"Zoe...?" he began. "Do you really, truly, honestly love me?"

"Of course I do. You know that." Zoe said, glancing down at her arm, which still had his name scarred on it.

Rei smiled and nodded his head, looking out into the distance.

"Okay. That's all I wanted to know."

Zoe felt a little disappointed. She was really hoping that his question was going to be a different one...

Zoe sighed softly and stared down at the ground.

"You guys, let's go! It's getting really late." Kai called to Rei and Zoe.

Zoe nodded and stood, as did Rei. Zoe started to walk off, but he grabbed her arm and spun her around, pulling her into a soft, loving kiss.

"I really, truly, honestly love you," he said softly.

"And I really, truly, honestly love you, too." Zoe replied with a smile. "I guess I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay. Bye, sugar."

"You still haven't forgotten that nickname..." Zoe laughed. "Bye, Skipper."

Rei smiled as she walked off towards her car. Before she got in, she said goodbye to everyone else, and then started the car up. The streetlights were just coming on as she drove down the dark, barren streets. Zoe finally parked her car in the parking lot that was in front of the apartment complex she lived in. Zoe hurried inside and went over to the elevator, only to find that it was, yet again, broken. Sighing, she started to climb up the stairs. her apartment was on the sixth floor.

'_Well, at least I'll be getting some exercise..._'

It felt like zoe had been climbing up the stairs forever, until she finally got to her apartment. Zoe unlocked the door quickly, flipping on the lights as she walked in. She shut the door behind her and kicked her shoes off. Zoe's apartment was a decent one. It had enough space for her, so it was good enough. It had one bedroom, one bathroom, a small kitchen, and a little living room.

Zoe was tired and still slightly wet. So, she took a quick shower and then went to her small room. She flopped down on the bed, burying her face into her pillow. After only a moment, she had drifted off into a less-than-pleasant slumber...

----------------------------

The figure standing before Zoe was blurry...extremely blurry. She couldn't make anything around her out at all.

"Just stop your bullshit!" Zoe shouted at the figure, though she didn't understand why.

There was a loud bang and she felt something rip right through her. There was suddenly a searing pain in her shoulder as she collapsed to the ground. Her eyes were shut tightly, but tears still managed to slip from them. When she reopened them, she was staring into someone's dark blue eyes...

...Her _father's_ dark blue eyes.

"Won't you die tonight for love...?" he asked, before everything around her faded away.

Zoe awoke the same way she always use to; sitting straight up, drenched in sweat. She hadn't had a nightmare in so very long. She were actually beginning to think that she had seen the last of the nightmares...but now she knew that she hadn't. Zoe brushed her hair out of her face with her hand and stared at her alarm clock. It was pitch black in her room, but she could see 9:00 A.M glowing on the clock. Zoe decided to get up. When she stood, though, something poked the bottom of her foot. Zoe yelped slightly and looked down. Zoe could just barely see a red rose with one thorn on its stem where she had been standing. Upon looking around, hard and carefully, she noticed many more roses on the ground. Confused, she stood and cautiously walked across the room, turning the flipping the lights on as she went towards the door. Zoe opened it and saw an envelope hanging down from the doorframe on a string, dangling right in front of her face. Zoe grabbed it and opened it. There was a simple white piece of paper in it, though it was folded up. She unfolded the note and read what was written down on it.

"_Go back into your room, turn off the lights, and then look up._" was what was written.

Zoe recognized the writing as Rei's. She shrugged and closed the door once again. She turned the lights off and looked up at the ceiling, her eyes widening at what she saw.

"_Marry me..._" was written on the ceiling in glow-in-the-dark paint.

Zoe were overwhelmed with happiness and a mixture of other feelings that she just couldn't describe. Zoe turned and fumbled out of the dark room, into the small living room. She was going to dash for the phone, but stopped when she saw Rei sitting cross-legged on her couch, grinning. She just stood there, staring at him for a moment, but then she _literally_ pounced on him and hugged him as tightly as she could, what do you expect she is a cat person.

"What's your answer...?" he whispered into her ear.

Zoe smiled and answered softly, "What the hell do you think?"

After a while of just holding onto him, zoe stood. He smiled and stood as well. Rei grabbed her hand and slipped a ring onto her ring finger. Zoe looked down at it. The ring's band was golden, and what looked to be half of a heart was on the band. Little diamonds were studded on the band and there was half of a bigger diamond on the inside of the half-heart. Zoe smiled and once again threw her arms around Rei.

"I fucking love you."

"I fucking love you too." Rei laughed. "So, do you want to go around town and tell the others?"

Zoe looked like she were thinking for a moment, before she grinned.

"No, not yet."

Rei looked a little confused. Zoe grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him back into her bedroom.

"...Are you...serious...?!"

Zoe simply smiled at her mother in reply. Her eyes were wide and she looked about ready to scream...which she did. She threw her arms around Zoe and pulled her into a rib-crushing hug. Zoe gasped for air.

"Mom...can't breathe...! Please...let...go!" Zoe choked out.

"MY LITTLE GIRL IS GETTING MARRIED!" she cried, completely ignoring her request.

Chris just stood back and smiled broadly.

"It was only a matter of time," he mumbled.

Zoe's mother finally released her after a while...and then attacked Rei with one of her amazingly strong hugs.

"Honey," Her father laughed. "You might want to let Rei go before he passes out. I think you're squeezing him too hard."

"Oh, I'm sorry, dear. I'm just overwhelmed with joy." her mother smiled and let go of Rei. "Jeff would be so happy..."

Zoe moved her gaze down to the ground upon hearing her father's name. Lately, even mentioning him had become a taboo subject to Zoe. She knew that her dream was to blame for that.

"Okay then, you guys. We're gonna go let his parents and the others know." Zoe said quickly, grabbing Rei's hand and making her way to the front door. "I'll probably be back later, though. Okay?"

"Okay. See you two later." Chris said, waving goodbye.

Zoe hurried out the door, towards her car in the parking lot.

"Hold up, Zoe." Rei stopped her. "Why are you hurrying away so quickly?"

"Listen, I don't want to talk about it right now. Can we just continue on with our day?" Zoe asked, smiling weakly.

"Okay..." Rei replied reluctantly.

Both of them got into the car and started to drive off in the direction of the Kon household.

Zoe was sitting alone in her living room, watching T.V. Rei had gone home for the night. It was about midnight, but she wasn't very tired. The whole day had just been hectic. Mrs. Kon, upon receiving the marriage news, actually fainted. Mr.Kon's reaction was pretty much like Chris's. Kai, Tyson, Max, and Kenny weren't shocked at all. Apparently, they had known about Rei's intentions for quite some time.

But, even after her busy day, she couldn't fall asleep. There was currently some weird horror show playing on the T.V screen. It really made no sense. She sat there and watched the show until it went off, and eventually fell asleep on the couch.

----------------------------

Zoe awoke to the faint ringing of her phone. Her eyes opened tiredly and you gazed around the dark living room. She sat up as the phone continued to ring. Her hands fumbled along the coffee table in front of the couch until they fell upon the phone.

"Hello...?" Zoe answered.

Her only reply at first was heavy breathing. It freaked her out. She was just about to hang up, but then she heard a voice. A _very_ familiar voice...

"You won't get away this time...you will both die..."

...And then Lee hung up...


	12. FINAL CHAPTER!

Zoe didn't feel safe anymore. A fear that had long been lost returned to her, hitting yher with full force. She stood quickly, fear making her shake violently. Zoe still clutched the phone tightly in her hand, and jumped when it rang again. She absentmindedly answered it.

"...Hello?" Zoe whispered cautiously.

"Hehe...I can see you perfectly from where I'm standing...you haven't changed a bit in the past year..."

Zoe dropped the phone and, without a second thought, ran out the door. She ran down the stairs and then right out of the apartment complex. When she got to her car, she realized that she had left the keys to it in her apartment. She cursed under her breath, but decided that there was no way in hell she would be going back in. She stood by her car for a moment, thinking. She decided to walk to Rei's apartment. Well, Rei and Kai's apartment. They lived together. But, as soon as she started walking down the street, she stopped. She didn't want Rei to know about Lee. She hadn't even told him about the threat Lee had made a year earlier. She just didn't want to make her problem his...Zoe didn't want to get him involved in any of this.

But, then again, she had nowhere else to go. And, plus...Lee did threaten both of them. So, she continued to walk in the direction of Rei's place. She knew he'd be a little grumpy about her showing up at his front door at such an early hour.

After walking for quite some time, Rei's house came into view. She ran the rest of the way to the house, jogged across the yard, and got to the front door. Zoe took a moment to catch her breath before knocking on the door. There was the sound of something moving around on the other side of the door, then the sound of footsteps, before the door opened to reveal a half-awake, half-asleep Rei.

"Zoe..." he asked tiredly. "What are you doing here...? It's only..." he glanced back at the clock in the small living room, "4:00 A.M."

Zoe adverted her gaze down to the ground.

"Yeah...I know...I'm real sorry. It's just that something...weird...happened back at my apartment." Zoe gave her mumbled explanation.

"Really...?" Rei yawned. "How weird?"

Zoe shivered, remembering the phone call.

"Eh...just weird." Zoe replied softly. "I'm sorry if I woke you. I didn't know where else to go. I'll just leave-"

"No, no. It's alright. Come in." Rei said quickly, stepping aside to let her inside the house.

Zoe nodded and walked into the dark house. She gazed around, seeing that the living room was a complete mess. Rei walked over to the couch and sat down on it, pushing a couple of beer bottles off of it, onto the floor.

"Sorry about the messiness." Rei apologized with a sleep smile as she came and sat down next to him.

Zoe wished she could smile back at him, but just couldn't. The thought of Lee now stalking her and Rei scared him senseless. Rei's sleepy smile turned into a frown as he saw the fear etched into her facial expression.

"What's wrong...?" he asked softly, putting an arm around her.

"...I can't say...I just don't want you to worry..." Zoe murmured.

"Come on...it's my job to worry about you. Just tell me." Rei pleaded.

Zoe sighed heavily. He wanted to know, and she didn't like keeping secrets from him, so she had no choice but to tell him.

Zoe was about to start explaining, when there was a loud crash upstairs, followed by hysteric laughter.

"What was that?"

Rei sighed.

"Kai, Tyson, Max, and Kenny. They've been drinking all night. They probably just broke something..." Rei sighed.

There was another crash, followed by more laughter, before Max and Tyson came bounding down the stairs.

"TO THE PIRATE SHIIIP!" Max laughed drunkly.

"AYE, AYE!" Tyson shouted, sounding even drunker than Max.

Zoe stared in confusion as the two staggered off into the kitchen.

"How about we go somewhere else to talk?" Rei asked.

"Sounds like a good idea...but why in the hell were they all drinking anyways?"

"Oh, they were actually giving me a really early bachelor's party. I drank a little, but those four seriously overdid it. After an hour of watching them all laugh for no reason and run around, I got bored and just came down here to sleep on the couch."

"Ah, I see." Zoe nodded.

Rei threw on his leather jacket and slipped some shoes on. The two of them walked out the front door just as Kai and Kenny came downstairs, laughing like idiots.

The two of them got into Rei's car.

"Where to?" he asked.

"...The cemetery." Zoe replied somewhat distantly, looking out the car door window.

"Okay then." Rei said and then started the car up.

The drive to the cemetery was a very quiet one. Zoe was lost deep in thought and Rei seemed to just be focusing on the road before him. Zoe snapped out of her thoughts just as the car started driving down the winding cemetery path. Zoe noticed how eerily quiet it was in the cemetery. She glanced over at Rei, who was still staring hard at the dirt path as he drove. When she looked back out the car door window and stared at the passing tombstones, the nightmare yshe had had so very many nights before flashed in her mind. She felt her heart jump as she realized she was pretty much _living_ that nightmare.

The car stopped right beside her father and sister's grave. Slightly shaking with fear, she got out of the warm car, into the cold night. She slowly walked over to the tombstone and leaned against it, crossing her arms and closing her eyes tightly.

"Okay...so what happened back at your apartment?" Rei asked, standing next to her.

She took a deep, shaky breath and started to explain.

"Well...I got a phone call from Lee-"

"Talking about me behind my back, dear Zoe...?"

Zoe jumped and scanned the darkness before her, heart racing. Rei's eyes narrowed as he looked around as well. Zoe's eyes finally fell upon him. He stood beside Rei's car, a lit cigarette between his lips, which were currently forming a scary, evil smirk. Lee took a step forward, out of the darkness. She was completely frozen with fear when she saw a gun clutched tightly in his right hand...

Her eyes widened at the sight of the gun and she felt fear greater than she had ever felt it before.

"You both are like fucking mouses..." Lee said, taking the cigarette out of his mouth.

He blew smoke into the air before tossing the cigarette.

"You're the fucking mouses...and I'm the fucking cat, witch is ironic if you ask me, NEKO-JIN!" he said, grinning evilly.

"Lee...just put the gun down..." Rei pleaded softly.

"Shut the fuck up, or else I'll blow your fucking head off." Lee threatened, pointing the gun at Rei. "I'm the fucking cat...and this fucking cat has been neglected for too fucking long!" (Lee is saying fuck too much ')

"Just calm down Lee!" Zoe shouted. "Think about what you're doing!"

"Oh, I've thought about it already. I've thought about it for a whole year." Lee said coldly. "And I know exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to kill Rei..."

Then, Zoe just snapped.

"Just stop your bullshit!" Zoe shouted angrily.

Lee pointed the gun at her, eyes full of anger, and then pulled the trigger.

The bullet ripped through her shoulder and she fell to the side, landing on her stomach. Zoe lay motionless, eyes shut tight.

"ZOE!!!!" Rei screamed.

"Don't you fucking move! I swear to God if you move, I'll kill her instead!" Lee growled. Then, he started talking to Zoe. "See what you've done?! I have only two bullets, and you just made me waste one on you. Hmm...I suppose I should make the last one count, then..."

Zoe opened one of her large golden eyes and saw Lee point the gun back at Rei. Rei's face held an expression of pure horror. Both of them were so concentrated on the other, that they didn't notice Zoe standing up. Her shoulder hurt terribly, but it didn't matter to Zoe at the moment. Zoe knew what all her dreams meant now...she knew what her father had been meaning when he would ask her that eerie question in her dreams...

"_Won't you die tonight for love...?_"

Zoe closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then reopened them.

"Yes."

Then, there was a loud bang...

Rei shut his eyes as tightly as he could, waiting for the bullet to hit him...

...But it never did.

He didn't open his eyes immediately, but he heard something hit the ground, and then the sound of someone running off. Rei guessed it was Lee...

When he did reopen his eyes, though, tears escaped from them at the horrific sight he saw. There Zoe lay, on her back on the ground, staring blankly up at the night sky. There was a gunshot wound on her chest and blood was draining from it fast.

"God no...no...NO!" Rei cried, falling to his knees beside Zoe.

Zoe were still alive...but just barely. Rei sat her up and wrapped his arms around her.

"Please...please don't die..." he pleaded.

Zoe closed her eyes and grinned. After a moment of silence, she placed a shaky hand on the side of Rei's face.

"I did the right thing." Zoe mumbled. "Tell everyone...that I died for love..."

Her hand fell limply to her side, but before darkness completely engulfed her, she whispered some final words to Rei, "I fucking love you, Rei...and I always will..."

And then everything...was gone...

"WAKE UP, DAMN IT!" Rei screamed at her, crying even harder now.

He shook her, trying in vain to wake her up.

"No...I love you...you can't die..." he sobbed.

Rei refused to believe that she were gone. He picked her up and ran to his car. He had convinced himself that the hospital could bring Zoe back...

----------------------------

**Rei's P.O.V**

I sat beside Kai in the church as the preacher talked on. I wasn't paying attention to a word he was saying, though. I was still having a hard time accepting the reason I was at the church in the first place. I glanced over to Zoe's parents. Her mother was crying harder than I had ever seen her cry before. Chris was even letting tears fall from his eyes. I then glanced over to Kai and my parents. Kai was staring blankly at the ground, he never was one for showing much emotion. My mom was crying, but my dad just stared up at the preacher. His face was expressionless. There were a lot of people in the church, including Tyson, Max and Kenny, who all sat behind us, they were all crying silently.

"You all may now come up and say your final farewells," the preacher announced.

I stayed seated as everyone got up and walked up to the open casket, where Zoe rested...looking as perfect as she always use to. She was very pale, showing that there was no longer a soul nor any life living within her. She was dressed in her favorite (and most likely only) dress...the one she wore to the prom.

I watched as people muttered goodbyes to her, put flowers and other cherished items into the casket, and then left the church. After everyone was done with their farewells, Zoe's casket would be loaded into a hearse and taken to the cemetery to be buried. I wasn't planning on going to the cemetery, though. I couldn't even pass by that place without cringing or even crying anymore. The church was pretty much empty when I finally stood and walked over to the casket. It hurt me so badly to just look at her. I wanted her to just suddenly get up and do something...I just wanted her to be alive again...

A single tear escaped down my cheek as I grabbed her cold hand. I saw the engagement ring still on her ring finger. I reached a hand into my jacket pocket and pulled out the wedding ring itself...which was the other half of the engagement ring. I slipped it onto her finger. It fit in perfectly with the other ring, forming a heart with a diamond in the middle. I then let her hand fall back onto her chest. I leaned down and kissed Zoe one last time, her lips cold and dead. I sighed heavily as I closed the casket completely...knowing that I'd never see my angel's face again...

The steps were pretty slippery from the rain as the five of us walked outside, holding the casket up. It felt like it took an eternity to walk down those steps, but we finally got over to the hearse. We gently slid the casket in and stepped back. I shut the door and placed my hand on the window, staring at the casket for a moment, before I turned and walked away from my one true love. I was never going to turn around...I was never going to think of Zoe again...

...And I knew how fucking hard that would be when all I _could_ think of was her.

**9 Years Later...**

Rei walked silently through the cemetery. He glanced around, seeing familiar sights. He was finally back home after two years. Along with the Bladebreakers, they were quite famous now infact they were world champions , there was extensive touring on the way...again. Rei sighed as he stopped in front of a tombstone. The name "Elena Kon" (His grandma) was inscribed on it. She had died the day Rei came home. He knelt down and ran his fingers along the name, sighing once again. Rei then pulled a rose out of his coat pocket and put it on top of the tombstone, before he stood up.

...But he was stopped as soon as he turned around to start walking out of the cemetery. His eyes fell upon two graves that were side-by-side. One grave had an angel statue on the tombstone, and the other was just a regular tombstone. Though, there was a crow perched on top of it. Rei found himself wandering over to the grave, even if his mind was telling him not to. Rei knelt down in front of it and looked at the name inscribed on it. It was a name that he hadn't forgotten, and never would forget..."Zoe Jin".

"It was just like all of those fucked up drama movies..." Rei mumbled to himself. "Why the fuck did she have to be so stupid that night? She shouldn't have jumped in front of me, damn it!"

"But she did."

Rei jumped to his feet and spun around to face Kai.

"Stop popping up behind me like that!" Rei sighed.

Kai looked serious, though. (but when didnt he?)

"Rei, you need to fucking get over the fact that she did what she did. You know that you would've done the same exact thing if it had been her in your situation. She _died_ for you, okay? I don't know anyone who would die for me. So, Rei, stop beating yourself up for her choice." Kai stopped for a moment, before continuing on. "She only made that choice because she loved you, anyways."

And then Kai turned around and walked off, leaving Rei looking amazed. Kai rarely ever spoke. But...all of his Kai's words had been true. Rei turned back around to face the grave. He stared at it for a moment, before smiling weakly. The crow atop of tombstone cawed loudly and then took flight. Rei followed the crow with his eyes and watched as it flew to practically the other side of the cemetery and perched itself on a girl's shoulder. The girl was walking around, staring at graves with intense eyes.

But Rei stared at this girl for a while, before he shook his head and started to walk out of the cemetery.

'_It couldn't be..._' he thought to himself.

...But that girl just looked so much like Zoe...

**The End**


End file.
